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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28258581">dark magics</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/savorvrymoment/pseuds/savorvrymoment'>savorvrymoment</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>dark magics [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alien Cultural Differences, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Biting, Blood and Violence, Childhood Trauma, Dubious Consent, Dubious Morality, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Knotting, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 19:54:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>36,268</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28258581</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/savorvrymoment/pseuds/savorvrymoment</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was Savage Opress who was sent as Darth Sidious's apprentice, then subsequently cut down by Obi-Wan on Naboo.  </p><p>Years later, Obi-Wan crosses paths with a Zabrak refugee of the Dathomir massacres.  His face is a haunting reminder of so very many things.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Obi-Wan Kenobi/Darth Maul</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>dark magics [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2273567</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>374</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Just a couple of notes.  First, I've taken generous liberties with canon.  Especially the timeline.  Just don't look too closely. ;)</p><p>Second, I do want to warn that there is a child character in this that, while not maliciously abused or neglected, is stuck in a horrible situation.  There is no physical or sexual abuse, but still please read cautiously.  </p><p>Anyway, I hope you enjoy.  Comments and kudos are much loved. &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Obi-Wan feels him before he ever sees him.</p><p>He's in Mos Eisley stocking up on supplies, and there is that heavy, hot, twisting feeling of the Dark permeating the air and snaking up his spine.  He walks slow through the streets looking around himself, trying to find them, whoever they are.  The Empire can't have found him, it's impossible.  No one knows.  <em>Kriff</em>, he needs to get back home, needs to get back to Luke, but then he risks being followed.  He'll linger outside the city, he figures, try to make sure he loses the trace...</p><p>He turns and comes face to face with wide, golden-red eyes.</p><p>His stomach drops to his toes.</p><p>It's an adult male Zabrak, and he looks startling similar to the one Obi fought on Naboo all those years ago.  Darth Savage had the same markings, tattoos, the same exact eyes—and while this Zabrak has a black shawl thrown over his head, the front few horns of his crown peak out from beneath the linen.  They're placed the same as Savage's were, the same bone-grey color and the same shape as well.</p><p>The only difference is this Zabrak's skin.  His is a bright blood red, while Savage's had been that sickly yellow-orange.</p><p>Suddenly, Obi is a padawan again on Naboo.  Just a boy, really—he'd thought he was smart, thought he was strong, but he'd just been young and naive.  He'd watched his Master be run through, then he himself had cut Darth Savage in half.  And yes, Savage had been the enemy, but he'd still been a living breathing creature.</p><p>His death had been brutal, cruel, and sickening.</p><p>Obi wonders if this Zabrak is here to avenge him.</p><p>But then, unbelievably, the Dark feel of the Force between them... softens.  It's not something Obi even thought was possible.  The times he's felt the Dark, it was always either a deep and cold void or a wild and burning madness.  There is never any sort of calm.</p><p>The Zabrak is clearly focusing his purpose on the Force to make a point, even if that purpose is against the Dark's basic nature.  And his message is loud and clear...</p><p>
  <em>I don't mean you any harm.</em>
</p><p>Obi holds his gaze for another long moment before he nods once.  An acknowledgment.  He doesn't trust the Zabrak, but the Force doesn't lie, it can't.  It shows emotion and intent, and it would be obvious if the Zabrak were hostile.</p><p>It doesn't make it any easier to separate the face of this Zabrak from Savage's.</p><p>The Zabrak mirrors his nod, then lowers his gaze, stepping slowly around him and moving on down the line of merchant tents.  He walks unsteady, almost limping, although it's more as if he's unsure his legs will hold him.  It's strange, to say the least.</p><p>Obi pretends to analyze the selection of teas in front of him while keeping an eye on the Zabrak.  The creature hobbles down until he gets to a selection of kabobs cooking over an open fire, then haggles with the merchant.  He becomes frustrated after a bit, then leans into the Twi'lek's face with bared teeth, threatening.  He gets three kabobs for his trouble, though Obi misses whether he actually pays for them or not.</p><p>Obi also misses whether he Force-compels the merchant, though it seems like he just intimidates him with his glare and canines and size.  The Zabrak isn't terribly tall, but he's still a big beast, wide and thick, muscles noticeable even under his robes.  Obi would have given him the damn kebobs, too.  It's not worth the violence.</p><p>He follows down the line of merchants as the Zabrak hobbles away.  He can feel the Dark swirling around in the space between, wild and blistering yet... pleased?  Well, the Zabrak certainly looks happy as he tears the meat off the kabob sticks, canines shining sharp in the bright Tattoine sun.  Obi supposes even Sith Lords get hungry.</p><p>He keeps his own emotions close to the breast, keeps his own thoughts shielded, all while still keeping a reach out for the other.  He can't let this Zabrak know what he's thinking, know that he's worried, <em>scared</em>.  He can't lead this Zabrak back to his home, back to Luke.  The Zabrak's presence in the Force is strong and intense—he'll feel the boy immediately, and he'll know.</p><p>He wonders if the Empire suspects, or somehow <em>knows</em>, if they've sent this creature here to scout out the area.  It's impossible, but what is another explanation for a Sith to just <em>appear </em>in Mos Eisley?</p><p>But then he watches the Zabrak wobble away, an odd staccato cadence to his gait.  The creature would never be able to hold his own in a fight.  Sure, there is the possibility that it's all an elaborate hoax.  That there is nothing wrong with his legs.  But still..</p><p>The Zabrak disappears around the corner of a sandstone building.  Obi can still feel him, not too far away.  It's strange, he thinks, that someone with such a powerful influence in the Force is barely making an attempt to hide himself.  And maybe that's all a hoax as well, but...</p><p>He doesn't think a Sith of the Empire would wander around Mos Eisley broadcasting his presence to a Jedi while acting half-crippled.  It's too risky, even for a reconnaissance mission. </p><p>He's not going to head back to his home without looking into it all further, though.  He can't take that risk.</p><p>He follows after the Zabrak, slow and careful, sure to keep himself hidden all the while.</p><p>~*~</p><p>The Zabrak makes a few more stops along the way, most all of them in back alleys.  He's obviously conducting some sort of illegal business, though what Obi can't say.  He never gets a good enough look at what transpires in the alleys to hazard a guess.  The Zabrak always comes stumbling back out just as he'd gone in, his shawl pulled low and his eyes narrowed into a glare.  People clear out of his way, not meeting his gaze.</p><p>His last stop is at a cybernetic parts shop—used parts, cheap, many of them bought off the Jawa.  Obi lingers a few shops away, letting the feel of that Dark wild frenzy wash over him.  It's unchanged, like it's just the creature's natural state of being.</p><p>Obi doesn't know how anyone lives like that, with that much chaos and madness and burning passion inside them.  All the time.  No peace, no quiet.</p><p>The Zabrak comes out of the shop eventually, a small tote in hand, and it all comes together for Obi.  That unsteady almost-limp, it's definitely not a hoax.  The Zabrak is walking on cybernetic limbs, and they're either not fine-tuned or he's not accustomed to them yet.  Maybe both.</p><p>Still doesn't explain what the Zabrak is doing in Mos Eisley, but it makes Obi feel a little bit better about the situation.  At least if the Zabrak makes a move, Obi will be able to overpower him without breaking a sweat.</p><p>It's mostly this fact that makes up his mind.  He'll just confront the Zabrak, find out what he wants and what he's doing there.  Hopefully they can come to some sort of nonviolent accord, but if the creature lashes out, Obi will just take care of him. </p><p>So he corners the Zabrak in a back alley, though the Zabrak seems unsurprised to see him.  The creature raises one brow ridge, golden eyes curious, and asks, "Why are you following me, Jedi?"</p><p>Obi shushes him, glancing around them nervously, but there is no one else around to hear.  "Why is a Sith wandering around Mos Eisley?" he counters.</p><p>The Darkness around the Zabrak swirls in righteous anger, and the Zabrak bares his teeth, showing his canines like a wolf.  "I'm no Sith," he hisses.</p><p>"Could have fooled me," Obi comments.</p><p>"I'm a Dathomiri Nightbrother, not a Sith," he growls.  "There is a difference."</p><p><em>Oh</em>, Obi thinks.  "You're a refugee," he realizes.</p><p>The Zabrak is quiet for a moment, just staring with those fathomless eyes, before he murmurs, "I am."</p><p>"I heard about what happened on Dathomir," Obi says.  "I'd heard there were no survivors."</p><p>"There weren't many," the Zabrak answers.</p><p>Obi nods.  Suddenly it all makes a little more sense.  He's not a Sith Lord, he's just a Nightbrother.  Displaced from a massacred homeworld, acquainted with the Dark Side through witchcraft and voodoo.  It is... not good, but it's better than the alternative.</p><p>"You thought I was here looking for you," the Zabrak observes. </p><p>"You can feel what I am," Obi points out.  "Do you blame me for worrying?"</p><p>"No, I don't," the Zabrak answers.  "But don't concern yourself.  I'm here to simply survive, not bother you."</p><p>Obi nods.  "Alright, then."</p><p>"Alright."  The Zabrak studies him for a moment, gaze wandering down his body then back up.  Those eyes are so much like Savage's.  It's chilling.  "If you don't mind," the Zabrak continues.  "I'd like to retire to my home.  And I'd prefer you out of town before I do."</p><p>Obi chuckles at the audacity.  "What if I'm not leaving?"</p><p>"I"m afraid I'll have to insist," the Zabrak says, lip curling to reveal one sharp canine.</p><p>"Pardon?"</p><p>"You don't live in Mos Eisley.  I haven't been here long, but I would have felt you before now."</p><p>"So you are ordering me to leave?" Obi clarifies.</p><p>"Yes," the Zabrak answers simply.</p><p>Obi would laugh if it weren't for the nightmarish look on the Zabrak's face.  There's only a minor change in the Force, a slight air of irritation, but no hard swing toward threat or anger or insanity.  Still, the Zabrak looks moments away from just lunging at him.</p><p>It's mostly why Obi nods and takes his leave.  He doesn't feel like having his throat ripped out by those teeth.</p><p>And if the Zabrak wants him gone, that's good.  Better than good.  It means they can part ways and hopefully never see each other again.  Obi will remain safe, and more importantly, Luke will remain safe.</p><p>~*~</p><p>He runs into the Zabrak again the next week when he's in Mos Eisley.  And then again the next week, and then again the next week...</p><p>It's ridiculous.  He's been on Tattooine for years now, and suddenly there's another Force-sensitive person, one attuned to the Dark, lurking about.  And Obi keeps seeing him each time he's in Mos Eisley.  Not just feeling his presence, but actually laying eyes on that horrifying face.</p><p>It's as though the Force is conspiring against him.</p><p>As for the Zabrak, he seems equally as unnerved by the whole thing.  He glares at Obi whenever they see each other and even growls at him once, lips pulled back and teeth bared like an animal.</p><p>Then, the fourth time Obi sees him, the Zabrak is making his way out of a healer's abode, and he's not alone...</p><p>There's a child balanced on his hip, the little one's head resting on the Zabrak's shoulder.  The child is all bundled in blankets even though it is warm and mild outside, which makes Obi think the Zabrak must be trying to conceal them for some reason.  Criminal activity probably, a kidnapping, and he should stay out of it for his own safety.</p><p>Except he thinks of Luke, and then Anakin when the boy had been small...</p><p>He strides across the street with purpose, and he feels the child's quiet presence in the Force right about the time the Zabrak rounds on him looking fit to murder.</p><p>The child's presence is small, much smaller than Luke's, but it's also different in every other way.  It's deep, immense power focused into a tiny speck of dust.</p><p>And it's red—a burning, searing hot red...</p><p>Obi knows it's the Zabrak's child before the little one ever raises their head and peers out from under the blankets. </p><p>Their skin is a softer red than their father's, almost peachy, and they don't have tattoos, only darker strips of color on their jaw and rings around their eyes.  There are bumps on the crown of their head, though only one horn has broken through the skin.  A little boy, then.  His eyes are watery like he's been crying, though he still bares his teeth at Obi in an adorable parody of his father. </p><p>Obi has never seen golden eyes in anyone that young.  Golden-red eyes in a tiny version of Darth Savage's face.</p><p>"I know you've seen my disability," the adult Zabrak speaks up, tone deadly.  "But do not think for a moment that I can't tear you limb from limb."</p><p>Obi holds his hands up in front of him, a silent 'calm down'.  "I didn't know," he says.  "I thought you were engaging in... criminal activity."</p><p>The Zabrak's brows rise, though Obi feels the tumult in the Force calm a bit.  The little boy turns his face back to his father's shoulder, burying himself into the soft black robes. </p><p>"I meant—<em>mean </em>you no harm," Obi says, then sighs.  And maybe it's time for introductions.  They seem incapable of being in the same place at the same time without coming face-to-face.  "How about we... share names.  My name is Obi-Wan.  What is yours?"</p><p>The Zabrak's Force signature flares at that, so forceful and angry and violent that Obi is taken back.  In fact, he actually <em>takes </em>a step back.  The boy in the Zabrak's arms whines, clutching at his father's robes.  Obi braces himself, unsure how he's offended the creature but sure that he's about to be attacked, but then the Zabrak just grunts, low and deep.  "Maul," he says, his presence in the Force still twisting in anger.  "My name is Maul.  And the boy is Feral."</p><p>"The boy is feral?" Obi asks, frowning.  It is definitely <em>not</em> the boy who feels feral at the moment.</p><p>Maul stares at him, confused and agitated, before huffing and shaking his head.  "His <em>name </em>is Feral," he clarifies.  "You idiot humans..."</p><p class="">"Ah," Obi says.  He finds himself relaxing even in the face of Maul's anger.  It's all making more sense now.  The Empire will no doubt kill any survivors they find of their attack on Dathomir, including small children.  Even children as young as Feral.</p><p class="">The boy looks even smaller than Luke.</p><p class="">Maul is here to protect his child.</p><p class="">"You shouldn't be in Mos Eisley," Obi says.  "You are a... <em>recognizable </em>face.  If anyone came through here asking about surviving Zabrak, someone would point you out immediately."</p><p class="">"I've thought about that," Maul says, taking hold of Obi by the shoulder and yanking him over to an alley.  "But I need to have the town's resources at hand.  Both for myself and my boy."</p><p class="">"You're putting me in danger by being here," Obi points out.  He gets that nasty snarl for his trouble.</p><p class="">"I'm sorry I'm an inconvenience," Maul growls, sardonic.  "I wish I wasn't in this situation.  Trust me."</p><p class="">"I didn't mean to say..." Obi starts, eyeing the little boy nestled against his father's shoulder.  <em>I don't want a confrontation...</em></p><p>"I will be gone from here as soon as I am able," Maul says, hefting the boy up and repositioning him on his hip.  "Until then, do not test me."</p><p>"I wasn't planning on it," Obi says.</p><p>Maul just grunts and answers, "You test me every time I see you."</p><p>~*~</p><p>A year passes, and Maul stays in Mos Eisley.</p><p>Obi continues to see the Zabrak every damn time he goes into town.  Sometimes Maul has Feral with him, and it's like watching the boy grow in small snapshots.  He shoots up a couple of inches, and his crown of horns comes in, just tiny things, little blunt bony protrusions.  His Force presence grows stronger as well, though it's still just a small pinpoint, deep and burning when nearby but unnoticeable when away.</p><p>Obi has several more... <em>discussions </em>with Maul about leaving.  Maul's emotions are wild and angry whenever he brings it up, dangerous through the Force, and he's quick to threaten Obi over it.  He never shows his power, doesn't demonstrate what he's capable of, but he uses those brutish and animalistic mannerisms to get his point across.  He glares and snarls and growls, bares and snaps and gnashes his teeth. </p><p>Obi hasn't had much experience with male Zabrak prior to this, only his battle with Savage, but he can remember Savage doing the same things, showing his canines and vocalizing.  It is obviously some sort of nonverbal communication for their species, or perhaps an instinctive behavior, a natural display of power and dominance.</p><p>Either way, Obi sees those sharp teeth and that curled lip, and all he can think of is Darth Savage.  That madness, destruction, death...</p><p>He hates himself for being afraid.  It's only a face, only a reflection of something that happened years ago.  This Zabrak's name is Maul.  He is <em>not </em>a Sith, he is <em>not </em>Darth Savage.  But Obi still backs down each time, leaves Maul alone to live in Mos Eisley.</p><p>He knows their carefully constructed safety is all going to come crashing down eventually.  And then it does...</p><p>It's the middle of the night, Obi sound asleep, when the sound of a motor wakes him up.  A speeder, and close-by.  It's far too late for anyone to be riding through the dunes so close, and so he rises from bed, throws on an overcoat, and leaves his bedroom to investigate.</p><p>It's the Zabrak. It's the <em>fucking </em>Zabrak.  He can feel his presence in the Force closing in like a deep fog in the night.</p><p>He's almost to the front door when he hears more speeders, then an unintelligible shout, and then the very distinctive sound of a lightsaber being ignited.  Obi's stomach ends up in his throat, and his heart starts to beat in double time.  He turns back, going for storage crates and the lightsaber he hasn't touched in years.  Once he's grabbed it, he heads for the front door again and shoves it open.</p><p>Maul's child is standing right there, and Obi nearly knocks the boy over as he barrels through the door.  Feral manages to dodge him, then scurries past his hip and inside his home.  Obi's home—the home that Maul shouldn't know about, much less know how to find his way to through the dunes in the dark of night.</p><p>Maul himself is engaged in combat with two women some ways away, another woman lying dead by a speeder bike off to the side.  Maul is more steady on his cybernetics than he used to be, but he's still struggling in the deep sand to keep up with the women's quick and agile movements.  He's mostly managing by continually Force-pushing them away and blocking with his dual-bladed saber.</p><p>His dual-bladed saber, bright red under the light of the moons, looks startlingly similar to Savage's.  Same shade, same height, same grip.  It makes Obi stop and stare, momentarily worlds away.</p><p>"Just get the child!" one of the women yells suddenly.  "I'll take care of this one.  He's weak."</p><p>One of the women breaks away from the fight and runs toward Obi and the house, and Maul whirls around after her.  The power in the air is tangible, dark forces fueled by rage and panic and fear, Maul's signature written all over it.  The Zabrak roars at her, then throws his saber...</p><p>There's a sickening moment of stillness as the dual-blades spin and hit the woman across her upper torso, slicing her in half.  Obi has the presence of mind to role of the way, narrowly dodging the last of the saber's trajectory before it hits the sand and disengages.  He straightens up to find the remaining woman at Maul's back, ready to run him through.</p><p>He doesn't even think about it, just instinctively reaches out to the Force and pushes.  The woman falls back with a cry and rolls across the sand.  It gives Maul plenty of time to round on her, fist held in the air as he closes her windpipe, then he falls onto his knees astraddle her, unsteady on the cybernetics.</p><p>Obi can't see what he's doing past the fall and drape of his black robes and cloak, but the woman's kicking and struggling weakens and slows before it eventually stops. </p><p>Feral is standing in the open doorway of his home, staring out at his father with an emotion Obi can't place.  It's not fear, not worry, not alarm.  It is startlingly close to despair for being on a face so young.</p><p>"Papa?" the child calls quietly, then begins to scurry his way over to Maul. </p><p>"Hey, hey, maybe you should stay inside," Obi suggests, but Feral is already running through the sand toward his father.  Cursing under his breath, Obi follows. </p><p>They don't get very far before Maul twists and snarls, "Boy, I told you to get into the house and <em>stay there!</em>"</p><p>Feral lingers a moment too long, leaving Maul to bare his teeth and make an absolutely terrifying noise in the back of his throat.  The boy scampers back, leaving Obi standing there as Maul releases his grip on the woman's dead body and sits down in the dirt next to her. </p><p>"<em>Fuck</em>..." Maul grates out, then snarls under his breath, hands grabbing at his skull. </p><p>Obi stands over him, looking down at the woman's corpse.  She seems like a female Zabrak, soft light hair and pale skin, markings on her chin and cheeks.  Her lips have gone a faint blue, Maul's fingerprints visible around her neck. </p><p>Now there are three dead bodies outside his home, and two people who know where he lives.  Two Force-sensitive people—two people attuned to the Dark Side—both of whom can probably feel Luke nearby.  No doubt Maul can, Obi would put credits down on it. </p><p>Obi takes a breath, adjusts his grip on his saber, and then ignites it.  Maul's spine goes rigid.</p><p>"I've just torn apart three people on your front steps," Maul says, not bothering to meet Obi's gaze.  "Do you really want to be the fourth?"</p><p>"You would be dead had I not stepped in," Obi points out.  "And your lightsaber is lying in the dirt by my front walk."</p><p>Maul looks up at him then.  His golden eyes shine eerily in the light of the moons.  "I thank you for the assistance," Maul tells him, voice dripping with condescension.</p><p>"Tell me what just happened," Obi demands.  "Why are you here?"</p><p>"They found me," Maul says simply, looking to his left at the woman he just strangled to death.</p><p>"Who?" Obi demands.</p><p>"The remaining Nightsisters," he replies.  "Or at least some of them."</p><p>"Keep talking."</p><p>Maul sighs, turning his head to glare back up at Obi.  "I am wanted by what remains of Clan Talzin."</p><p>"What did you do?"</p><p>"I disobeyed direct orders..."  He trails off, his gaze snapping past Obi's shoulder.  When he shouts, it's so sudden and loud it startles Obi.  "<em>Feral!</em>"</p><p>Obi glances back to find the boy standing over the woman lying in two pieces, his face a shocked mask.  Obi sighs and says to Maul, "This is... quite a lot for one so young."</p><p>"He's seen worse," Maul replies.</p><p>The boy squats down and reaches out to touch the half-corpse's shoulder.  Obi swallows down bile, while Maul yells, "<em>Feral! </em> Back inside!"</p><p>"I'll take him back inside and watch him," Obi decides.  "But you need to clean this up now.  Before the morning."</p><p>Maul nods.  "I... thank you.  I don't want the boy to see this one," he murmurs, hand reaching out to touch the woman's body at his side.  "So you can keep him while I dispose of her..."</p><p>And there is a lot there.  The matter-of-fact way he discusses disposing of the body, like it's just a normal everyday occurrence.  The fact that he says that Feral has 'seen worse', yet he doesn't want the boy to see <em>this</em> particular body.  And Obi can draw his own conclusions about that—this woman must be someone noteworthy, a caretaker or a family member.</p><p>Yet Maul strangled her not only with the Force, but with his bare hands.</p><p>Obi takes a breath, lets it out slow, and then turns back toward the house.  The boy comes willingly when Obi calls him inside.</p><p>~*~</p><p>Obi doesn't know what he expects with Feral. </p><p>The child is already a—not a Sith, Obi reminds himself.  Neither of them are.  But he's <em>something</em>, his presence in the Force speaks for itself.</p><p>Feral stays quiet, though, standing in the kitchen at Obi's hip while Obi starts a pot of water to boil.  Obi can feel him there lingering, or maybe lurking, hot in the Force like an engine fire.  He suddenly thinks of Anakin so many years ago, wonders about some of the things Anakin witnessed at this same age.  He wonders if at some point you're just bound to fall, destined for it...</p><p>Where there is Light, there must be Dark.</p><p>The kettle whistles, and Obi pulls it off the heat, pouring a cup for himself and—he frowns, looking down to Feral, and asks, "Do you like tea?"</p><p>Feral looks up at him, golden eyes in a round innocent face, and answers, "Yessir."</p><p>The juxtaposition of it all is enough to send Obi reeling, but he just nods, pouring Feral a cup of his own and adding teabags.  Feral asks awkwardly if Obi 'maybe has some sugar', and so Obi gets him the jar and watches as the boy dumps an insane amount into his tea.  Then he starts hoping Maul won't come back inside and kill him for giving his kid a sugar-high.</p><p>He can feel Maul moving around outside, the Zabrak's thoughts and emotions running wild.  As disturbing as his aura is, it's a reassurance being able to feel him so acutely.  He knows Maul hasn't wandered away, hasn't gone down the dunes toward the Lars'. </p><p>Obi tells himself he trusts Maul not leave without his child, but then he feels that chaos and fury and... he just doesn't know.</p><p>He starts wondering about Feral, wondering if the boy is safe with his father.  It seems impossible for anyone to be safe with the <em>thing </em>Obi feels outside his home, but Feral seems, well, at least physically okay. </p><p>Obi starts up a child-friendly show on the holotube—though he wonders how important 'child-friendly' is at this point—then he watches the little boy while Feral sits on his couch and drinks his tea.  The sugar-high never hits.  The boy just finishes his tea, then begins that silly child behavior where he fights sleep, his eyes falling half-closed before he jerks awake again and stares determinedly at the holotube.</p><p>He is way too adorable for a future voodoo Nightbrother.</p><p>It's how Maul finds them when he returns from taking care of things.  The first sun is just beginning to rise, and Feral startles awake once again when the door opens.  Maul looks them over where they're both sitting on the couch, before he says, "Why are you awake, boy?"</p><p>Obi is about to step in—he doesn't care if it's not his place.  He's not going to let this wannabe Sith punish his child for not sleeping after what just happened.  But then Feral makes a soft purring noise in the back of his throat and answers, "I wanted to make sure you came back alright."</p><p>Maul sighs, looking beyond exhausted.  His chaotic energy in the Force is still wild as ever.  Obi wants him to leave and go far away, yet also fears him leaving and bringing back danger.</p><p>And then Obi watches, utterly shocked, as Maul steps across the room and kneels down in front of the Feral.  Feral leans forward on the couch until his forehead touches his father's, and their forehorns bump together, Feral's so tiny next to his Maul's.</p><p>Maul makes a purring noise similar to Feral, though his is deep and low, a rumble in his chest.  Then he says, "I said I will always come back for you.  Do you not believe me?"</p><p>"I..." Feral begins, glancing over at Obi as though unsure or afraid or embarrassed.  The boy is hard to read, and Obi usually prides himself on <em>knowing</em>.  Finally, the boy admits, "I was afraid after last time."</p><p>"We've talked about this," Maul tells him, quiet but scolding. </p><p>And Obi's heart goes cold.  <em>'I said I will always come back for you.'  'I was afraid after last time.'</em></p><p>"What happened last time?" Obi demands.</p><p>Maul rocks back on his haunches and gives him a glare worthy of death itself.  "It's none of your concern."</p><p>"All things considered..." Obi argues.</p><p>"Papa almost died last time," Feral interrupts.</p><p>Obi looks at the boy in surprise, while Feral stares up at him with wide watery eyes.  Meanwhile, Maul growls warningly and says, "Hush, child."</p><p>Obi sighs and reaches over to lay a hand on Feral's shoulder.  There's a lot he needs to discuss with Maul, but... "Have you slept at all?" he asks the boy.</p><p>Feral looks up at him and shakes his head 'no'.  Obi sighs again, while Maul grunts in irritation.  "You need sleep, boy," the Zabrak says.  Then, to Obi, "Is there somewhere quiet I can lie him down to rest."</p><p>"My bedroom is through there," Obi says, motioning.  "You and I, though?  We need to have a chat."</p><p>Maul looks at him like he wishes Obi would just spontaneously combust, but he nods and says, "I'm putting my boy down first, then we'll talk."</p><p>It doesn't escape Obi's attention that Maul doesn't ask.  He tells, instructs, and demands.  The only questions he's asked since arriving on Obi's property were all directed to his son. </p><p>It's very telling.</p><p>Still, it's better for the little boy to be put to bed.  So Obi nods, then watches as Maul hefts the boy up and heads for the bedroom.</p><p>~*~</p><p>There's a strange dichotomy watching Maul put Feral down for bed.</p><p>The boy lies down on top of Obi's sheets and refuses to let Maul cover him up.  "It stinks like human," he informs Maul when Maul starts growling at him—at which point Maul rolls his eyes and fusses at him, but still takes off his cloak and drapes it over the boy like a blanket. </p><p>Feral buries his little face in the black material once Maul turns to leave, taking a great big breath in.  His signature in the Force calms, still bright hot and cherry red but almost... content.</p><p>At least as content as any Dark presence can ever be.</p><p>Obi turns and leads Maul back out to the kitchen, then glances at the Zabrak.  Maul is watching him with keen golden eyes, no trace of exhaustion written on his face even though Obi can feel it in him, both emotional and physical exhaustion wreaking havoc on his Force signature, making him feel even more chaotic and insane than unusual.</p><p>More dangerous than usual.</p><p>Obi decides to start off safe and says, "Your son seems very strong... resilient."</p><p>"He has had to be," Maul answers.</p><p>Obi nods.  "How old is he?"</p><p>"Fifteen turns," Maul answers.  Then, when Obi just stares at him, because the child is <em>not </em>fifteen years old... "Ah, standard years.  He is four standard years."</p><p>And Obi truly doubts that as well, but some species age differently than others.  Obi sighs and asks, "Why do your Nightsisters want him?"</p><p>Maul chuckles, wry and mean.  "Because I am not supposed to have him."</p><p>"I thought he was your son?"</p><p>"He is."</p><p>Obi is vaguely familiar with Dathomiri culture, though not enough to be confident he understands.  Still, he hazards a guess, "His mother, your mate, she intended to send him away?  Perhaps sell him?"</p><p>Maul snarls at him, though it's a weak gesture, halfhearted.  "I thought you Jedi were supposed to be pinnacles of intelligence."</p><p>"I am trying, but you're not giving me much to work with here," Obi says, agitated.  "You're the one who has shown up at my door in the middle of the night uninvited and unannounced.  I don't even know how you found me.  If it wasn't for your boy, I'd simply cut you down."</p><p>"You were easy to track.  There is a Force signature here, bright and magnetic," Maul answers.  Obi's heart seizes in his chest, because he has to be talking about Luke, he <em>has </em>to be.  But then Maul continues, "Anyway, I thank you for allowing Feral to rest here.  We'll take our leave as soon as he wakes."</p><p>"You never answered me," Obi says.  "About why the Nightsisters are after you."</p><p>Maul stays silent for a long moment, just staring, glaring, his lip curled in a half-snarl.  Finally, he asks, "Do you truly wish to know?  It is not a nice story."</p><p>"I'm sure I've heard worse," Obi says, smiling sadly.</p><p>Maul's glare melts into a frown, and his gaze slides away from Obi's, golden eyes tracking to the far wall.  Obi can feel his emotions shift in the Force, his anger and fury suddenly mixing with a deep overwhelming sorrow.  "During the massacre on Dathomir, once it became clear the battle was not to be won, my Clan Mother ordered a retreat.  But as I was boarding the ship, I realized there were no children with us, so I turned back..."</p><p>"That is an honorable thing to do," Obi says, honestly surprised that this furious creature would even bother.</p><p>"It was not honor I cared for, it was my <em>children</em>," Maul growls.  "I served my Mother for years, <em>decades</em>—I always did as I was told, I did not question, I served with humility and loyalty.  But without a future generation, we risk extinction.  I do not know why they did not understand this."</p><p>"And he's your child," Obi points out.  "No one can blame you for not wanting to leave him."</p><p>"It is not right for a Nightbrother to think that way.  To think of a child as his.  We allow the Sisters to take from us so that they may create new life," Maul says, and Obi can feel himself blushing even though the statement was far from explicit.  Maul continues, "But Feral is mine.  I can <em>feel </em>it within the Force.  And I dare anyone to take him away from me—they'll meet their death at the end of my <em>teeth</em>."</p><p>Obi nods in acknowledgment, not feeling any need for further comment on <em>that</em>.  What he does wonder is, "You said your children, plural.  You had more than Feral?"</p><p>"Mmm," Maul murmurs, and that chaos and hatred and sorrow becomes so intense Obi thinks he may choke on it.  "I had many.  I watched several be cut down during the battle, and most of the small children burned when the fortress was set afire.  I was only able to get to Feral and one other, though she died soon after."</p><p>"I'm sorry," Obi says, suddenly understanding.  <em>Kriff</em>, no wonder this creature is caught up in such a whirlwind of chaotic emotion—rage and sadness and insanity.  He can't help but think of Anakin, and of everything that had driven him to madness...</p><p>Death, destruction, and darkness.</p><p>Maul just grunts at his apology, nose wrinkled in distaste.  "Regardless," he says.  "The Clan has found us.  I am a traitor, the boy is their property.  Does that answer your questions?"</p><p>"It's good enough," Obi answers.</p><p>Another grunt from the Zabrak.  "I need to make plans.  We can't stay here," he murmurs, then rubs at his temples, careful around the horns. </p><p><em>I'm not sure I can let you leave, </em>Obi thinks.  <em>You know too much.  You know where I am.  You could find your way to Luke so easily.</em></p><p>
  <em>I should kill you, but I can't.  You might be all that little boy has...</em>
</p><p>"You can make plans later," Obi tells him.  "For now, you need to rest.  Your... <em>presence </em>is giving me a headache."</p><p>"That may be your own fatigue, Jedi," Maul says.  He spits the moniker like it's a bad word, but he smirks all the while as if at some private joke. </p><p>"It may," Obi agrees, though all of that Dark madness is not doing him any favors.  "I'll take the couch.  I assume you can be trusted to share the bed with Feral?"</p><p>"Are you accusing me of something?" Maul snarls, brows raised. </p><p>"It was an honest question," Obi counters.</p><p>Maul stands across from him staring, fuming, before he snaps, "I would never hurt my own child."</p><p>He says this in a way that makes Obi think his own throat may get ripped out before it's all said and done, but well, at least the child is safe. </p><p>So Obi nods, shows Maul where the 'fresher is, and then gets some extra blankets for the couch.</p><p>~*~</p><p>Obi doesn't sleep for long, can't really relax with the strangers in his home.  He only gets a few hours before he's stumbling up and folding the blankets neatly on the arm of the couch.</p><p>He goes to look in his bedroom without really thinking about it.  He's not spying, he's just investigating.</p><p>Father and son are both still asleep, curled toward each other like closed parenthesis.  Feral still has Maul's cloak draped over him, but he has his face buried in Maul's chest now.  Maul's cybernetic feet are a dull steel against the bedsheets.  They look strangely peaceful for two people Dark-attuned.  Maul's Force signature is even quieter, calmer. </p><p>Obi can hear a deep quiet rumbling from the bed.  It's not like anything he's ever heard before, perhaps somewhere between a snore and a purr.  It's far too low and heavy to be Feral, which means it has to be Maul.  Obi can't decide whether he finds that funny or disconcerting.</p><p>Either way, he leaves them be, going into the kitchen instead to scrounge up something to eat.</p><p>His mind keeps running in circles.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I've updated the tags, so please double-check for triggers/squicks.  </p><p>Also, chapter warning: there is some discussion of child sexual abuse, though none has happened and none happens.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Maul and Feral don't wake until the late afternoon, which gives Obi plenty of time to mull things over and come up with a plan.</p><p>Obi doesn't want the Zabrak leaving.  Friends close, enemies closer, and all of that.  However, Maul isn't going to take well to being <em>told </em>he can't leave.  It's just a hunch Obi has.  Perhaps Maul obeyed the Nighsisters' orders for all the years he lived with their clan, but since then he seems to have taken a hard swing from follower to leader, from servant to master.</p><p>So Obi does not tell, he <em>suggests</em>.  They'll be better off sticking together, yes?  Obi is strong, he can help protect the boy from danger.  He understands Maul's motivations, and he has no qualms with the child.</p><p>And while he doesn't say it to Maul, he knows it's not Feral's fault the child mirrors his father.  The boy has time to learn and grow and make his own decisions.  Perhaps it will do him good to be near a Jedi, to see another way and feel the other side of the Force.  Maybe Obi can be a good influence.</p><p>He'd failed Anakin, but maybe this time can be different.</p><p>Maul is surprisingly agreeable about the whole thing.  Obi doesn't quite know why.  Perhaps he's afraid that he can't protect the child well enough on his own.  Or perhaps he's just reached that point of bone-deep exhaustion where having someone, <em>anyone </em>to fall back on seems like a good idea.  The Dathomir massacres were two years ago, maybe three?  So many things have happened in the past few years, it is difficult for Obi to keep track.</p><p>Regardless, Maul agrees to stay on one condition...  "I'm warding the house," he says.</p><p>Which is how Obi finds himself outside his sand-hut as the first sun is setting, watching while Maul kneels in the dirt and paints his blood onto the walls.  It's luckily not all that noticeable, just small symbols finger-drawn on the very bottom edges next to the ground.  A stranger passing by might not even see them, except Obi has watched Maul circle his home and carefully paint each one. He knows where they are. </p><p>When Maul slices his palm open with one of Obi's kitchen knives, his blood spills out a rich, almost purple-red.  It looks black once it's dried against the house.</p><p>Once he finishes with the last of his fingerpainting, he turns to Obi and holds out the knife.  "Cut your palm," he orders.</p><p>"What? No," Obi says, flabbergasted.</p><p>"You need my blood if you want to go back into your home," Maul explains.  "Now cut your palm so we can get on with this."</p><p>"I am not doing that," Obi says.  "Sharing blood?  That is..."  <em>Voodoo, dark magics</em>, his mind supplies.</p><p>"Fine, do what you will.  Disintegrate when you cross over the threshold," Maul says, like it's just that simple.  </p><p>"Ok, ok," Obi says, reaching out and grabbing the knife away from him.  Maul smirks, watching keenly as Obi draws the knife across his palm.  Obi hisses at the sting, waiting as the red wells up and out, then extends his hand.  Maul nods, then reaches out to take his hand.</p><p>Obi doesn't know what he expects.  Some great shift in the Force perhaps—he's mixing his blood with a Dark-attuned Force user, one who is practicing voodoo outside his home <em>as they speak.</em>  But there is just heat and wet on his palm, plus Maul's same swirling vortex next to him, unchanged.</p><p>Maul pulls back eventually and then squeezes at his hand, curls his fingers into a fist and then relaxes again, keeping the blood flowing to the laceration.  "Alright," he says, tone low.  "Time to seal it."</p><p>"I have no idea what that means," Obi says, looking down at his bloody palm.</p><p>"Do you have any bacta?" Maul asks, which doesn't explain anything, but Obi nods anyway. </p><p>"I'll go get it," Obi tells him, stepping away back toward the door.  "I need it for my hand now, anyway."</p><p>Maul nods, situating his robotic legs off to the side so he can sit on his hip.  He calls out for Feral, but he's not mean or hateful about it the way Obi has grown accustomed to him speaking.  His tone of voice is low and gravelly like always, but he's still almost... almost <em>affectionate</em>. </p><p>Obi sees Feral look up from where he's playing in the sand, digging holes and creating little mountains and generally making a mess.  He stands up and runs toward his father as Obi opens the door and lets himself inside, which is where Obi finds him a few moments later when he returns with the bacta.  The boy's sitting next to Maul, nose wrinkled in irritation while Maul fusses over him.</p><p>"You're getting in the sonic as soon as we're done," Maul growls at the boy, trying to brush the sand off of him to no avail.  Feral bares his teeth and snarls, though he sounds more like a tiny puppy than anything to be afraid of.  Apparently Maul doesn't care what he sounds like, though, because he grabs the child by the chin and growls, "Do that to me again, boy, and you won't live to tell about it."</p><p>Obi frowns.  "Easy.  It's been a difficult couple of days."</p><p class="">"Oh, he does this to me once a week," Maul says, glaring.  "He's just never had a Nightsister whip his backside before.  Something he should be <em>grateful </em>for.  Now, give me the bacta."</p><p class="">Obi doesn't know what to say to that, so he just hands Maul the spray can.  Maul shakes it up then sniffs at it before setting it down at his hip.  Then he rolls up one of the sleeves of his tunic, pushing up just past his elbow.  His forearm is the same as his face and hands, red skin colored with black tattoos. </p><p class="">"Do not touch the house until I say," Maul announces.</p><p class="">"Uhm, alright," Obi replies, unsure, then watches in shock as Maul picks up his knife, tightens his grip on the handle, then draws the blade vertically up his inner arm.  From wrist to elbow.  The way someone would do in order to ensure they bled out.  That violet-red blood starts spilling heavy and fast, pouring over his skin and dripping down onto the sand.</p><p class="">Obi reaches for him without thinking about it.  It's been a long time since he's had to heal himself, even longer since he's had to heal someone else, but he remembers how, remembers how it feels.  Though when he wraps his fingers around Maul's wrist, Maul reaches across with his other hand and wrenches him away with a snarled, "<em>Don't</em>."</p><p class="">And so Obi stops and watches in stunned silence as Maul begins to quietly recite some sort of mantra or incantation.  It's not a language that Obi recognizes.  Perhaps Dathomirian, or maybe Paecian.  He's obviously practicing that famed Dathomiri black magic, and Obi wants to stop him, tell him not to put some sort of voodoo enchantment on his home, but then Maul goes silent and closes his hand into a fist.</p><p class="">The blood that has dripped down into the sand dissolves, disappearing from view.  There's a Force pulse from the hut, energy that Obi can feel, and then Maul releases Obi's hand, propping himself up as he slumps to the side.  Obi grabs hold of Maul's wrist once again, closing his eyes and breathing deep and reaching for the healing power in the Force.  He feels something being sprayed against his hand, wet and smelling of antiseptic.  The bacta—good, that's good.  That will help.</p><p class="">"It's alright, boy," Maul murmurs.  It's that very specific tone Obi is already coming to associate as his 'father' voice.  The tone of voice he uses with Feral at least most of the time.  At least when he has the wherewithal to be a caretaker and a comforter.</p><p class="">The bacta closes up the wound, and Obi spends a few minutes in a quiet trance pushing energy through himself and into Maul's body.  Maul lost a lot of blood in the ritual, more than even Obi realized at the time, and he feels anemic and weak through the Force.  Obi keeps a hold on him until he begins to feel stronger, until the Zabrak's Force signature is flaring with that wild passion again, and then he lets Maul go, sitting back to look him over.</p><p class="">Maul's expression is a complex thing, one Obi can't place, and his Force signature is too wild to read much into.  Feral sits in the sand by Maul's side, his hands clutching the fabric of Maul's trousers, biting his lip in worry.  One of his sharp little canines has caught on his lower lip, and there's a little drop of blood there welling up, ready to trail down his chin. </p><p class="">Maul follows Obi's gaze to his child, then sighs, reaching over to thumb at his mouth.  "Stop that," he chides, then cups the boy's chin in the palm of his hand.  Obi doesn't feel him working, but when he takes his hand away, Feral's lip isn't bleeding anymore. </p><p class="">And Obi had been vaguely aware of Maul's power before.  It was difficult not to be, you could feel it on him.  But watching everything that just unfolded—whatever dark magic he'd just wielded as if it was second nature, and then turning immediately after and healing his child.  Easily healing, even though he is a Dark Force-user. </p><p class="">Obi begins to wonder if he's sitting next to something <em>other</em>.</p><p class="">Maul turns back to Obi and says, "I... appreciate your assistance."</p><p class="">His tongue seems to trip over the words, like he's not used to expressing the sentiment.  Obi chuckles and answers, "Don't hurt yourself trying to thank me.  You're welcome."</p><p class="">Maul huffs at him, unimpressed, then pushes himself up from the ground.  Obi follows suit, watching a Maul goes over and lays his hand against the wall.  He <em>mmm</em>'s thoughtfully to himself, then says, "Well, no unapproved visitors."</p><p class="">"What?" Obi asks.</p><p class="">Maul looks back at him.  "If there is anyone else you want to let inside, they must see me," Maul tells him.  "Those who do not share my blood will not survive stepping over the threshold."</p><p class=""><em>That's ominous</em>, Obi thinks.  "I count as 'sharing your blood' now?"</p><p class="">"Why do you think I asked you to cut your palm?" Maul asks, sneering.  Obi rolls his eyes, following as Maul heads back toward the entrance.  Feral scampers after his father, close on his heel.</p><p class="">"I don't know," Obi says.  "Perhaps this is just your elaborate way of getting rid of me and taking my home."</p><p class="">"Don't give me ideas," Maul replies, dry. </p><p class="">Obi has a small jolt of panic as Maul opens the front door and ushers Feral inside in front of him.  But of course Feral is Maul's child, his flesh and blood, so the boy walks inside unharmed.  Maul obviously has no trouble entering either. </p><p class="">Obi grimaces as he steps through the open doorway, hoping he doesn't fall dead.  There is something of a shimmer he feels pass over and through him, almost a disturbance in the Force, but his body doesn't turn to ash.  His home also feels... normal.  Not tainted by Dark energy. </p><p class="">He looks up to find Maul watching him, smirking.  "Are you alright?" the Zabrak asks, though he doesn't sound like he particularly cares.</p><p class="">"Yes," Obi says.  He refrains from flipping Maul the bird because Feral is standing right there at Maul's hip watching him.  He really <em>really </em>wants to, though. </p><p class="">Then, Feral asks, "Can we have supper now?  I'm hungry."  Perfectly pleased and turning big hopeful eyes upon his father.  Like nothing just happened.  Like his father hasn't just painted blood all over the walls.</p><p class="">This kid is going to break his heart...</p><p class="">Maul huffs, laying on big hand on top of the boy's head, fingers splayed in between his horns.  "It's a bit early, but I suppose," Maul tells him.</p><p class="">And just like that, it's all over.  They cook the last of the bantha beef Obi has in the cellar, and Obi offers to roast some potatoes to go with it, but the two Zabrak turn him down.  So they eat and have tea, then Obi goes out into the back to meditate.</p><p class="">He has a small outdoor sitting area, a sandstone floor and several potted cacti.  It is always cool and quiet in the night, and Obi finds it easy to relax there.  To turn his thoughts inward and quiet his mind.  He doesn't know how long he's been outside when he feels another presence, and he opens his eyes to find Maul watching him.  The moonlight reflects in his eyes, turning them almost platinum.</p><p class="">"We are turning in," Maul informs him. </p><p class="">"Alright," Obi tells him.  "Good night."</p><p class="">"Good night," Maul parrots him, though he doesn't turn to leave.  He lingers, and Obi raises a brow, questioning.  Finally, Maul says, "We're intruding in your sleeping space.  I'll go back into Mos Eisley tomorrow and find..."</p><p class="">"You can't go into Mos Eisley," Obi interrupts. </p><p class="">Maul shakes his head.  "It will be fine.  I need to go back to our home there, anyway.  We at least need our clothes.  All we have is what we came with."</p><p class="">Obi sighs, nodding.  "Perhaps I'll go with you."</p><p class="">"We can discuss it later," Maul says.  "But I'll get supplies for a bed, and you can take back your bedroom."</p><p class="">"There's nowhere to put it," Obi points out.</p>
<p></p><div>
  <p>"I'll make room," Maul says.</p>
  <p>"I appreciate that you're already making yourself at home, but you can't just start moving things around to your pleasure and benefit," Obi protests.</p>
  <p>"You'd be surprised what I can do," Maul says, smirking.  "Just let me worry about all that.  You keep meditating, or whatever it is you Jedis do."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Obi rolls his eyes.  "Indeed."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Maul huffs again before he quietly takes his leave.  By the time Obi goes back inside, the Zabraks have both fallen asleep, their Force signatures quiet and restful.  It makes it a lot easier for Obi to lie down, even if they are both still on the back of his mind.  Lingering and lurking.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>Maul stays at the hut for a couple of days before heading back to Mos Eisley.</p>
  <p>Obi watches him closely, because it's one of the things that preys on his mind when it comes to Anakin.  What if he had paid more attention?  Would he have seen some sign of what was to come?  Would he have been able to discern the young man's lust for power?  Would he have seen that capability for senseless violence?</p>
  <p>Would he have been able to stop what had happened if he'd known earlier?</p>
  <p>But Maul is just... just Maul.  Controlling and callous and always aggravated, yes, but not evil.  The only thing he seems concerned with is his son.  Primarily the boy's safety, but certainly the boy's welfare and happiness too.  He doesn't seem to have any grandiose plans or ulterior motives.</p>
  <p class="">After some rest, Maul ventures back into Mos Eisley.  He takes Feral with him when he goes even though Obi offers to watch over the boy.  Obi doesn't think it would be any hardship—Feral is remarkably well-behaved for one so young.  But Maul insists, which Obi supposes he can understand.  He guesses it would be a bit like leaving your child with a stranger. </p>
  <p class="">They still don't know each other, not really.  Sure, they've spent a couple of days in each other's back pockets, eaten together and shared a bathroom, tried to coexist without stepping on each other's toes.  Obi's made a lot a quips about the hut being too small, and Maul's bared his teeth a lot, but otherwise they've stayed out of each other's orbits.</p>
  <p class="">So Maul hauls the boy into Obi's cargo speeder and takes off for Mos Eisley. Obi half-expects them to never return.  He's honestly surprised when they come rolling back in at the edge of dark, the speeder loaded up with supplies. </p>
  <p class="">Obi has no idea where any of it is going to go, and says as much when Maul starts hauling it inside.</p>
  <p class="">"I'll make room," Maul repeats.</p>
  <p class="">"You cannot simply 'make room.'"</p>
  <p>"There's plenty of extra room in the cellar," Maul says.  "I can partition it off from the rest, it will be fine."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"You'll both freeze," Obi protests.</p>
  <p>"I purchased a burnt-out heater from the Jawa.  It just needs repairing," Maul replies.  "We Zabrak are hardy, anyway.  We don't succumb to the elements like you humans."</p>
  <p>"Well, it sounds like you have it all planned out," Obi says, raising his arms and rolling his eyes.</p>
  <p>"I do," Maul says.  Then, watching Obi with a disdainful air, "You were the one who asked me to stay.  Did you not expect me to make a place for myself?"</p>
  <p>And well, Obi supposes that he has a point... </p>
  <p>Still, it doesn't mean Obi has to like it.</p>
  <p>It takes less than a day before Maul's made that 'place' made for himself.  For <em>them</em>—him and his son.  Namely, an unused corner of the cellar partitioned off from the rest with a slatted metal divider.  Between the repaired heater and the multitude of blankets and quilts brought over from their previous home, Obi has to admit that the cold probably won't be an issue.</p>
  <p>It's all very sparse.  Other than the heater and the partition, there's only a double-sized mattress set on the floor and a set of durasteel drawers assumedly housing their clothes and other belongings.  There's only one 'fresher in the hut, so their toiletries end up alongside Obi's.  Most everything is familiar—toothbrush and toothpaste, sanitizing condensate, deodorant, etc...  Though some things are noticeably absent, like any sort of shaving kit, and some things Obi doesn't recognize, like strange pots of oil and a thick nail file. </p>
  <p>At least, he thinks it's a nail file until he catches Maul filing his horns down one evening, Feral sitting on the toilet and watching him intently. </p>
  <p>When Maul notices Obi watching, he snaps, "What?"</p>
  <p>"I thought that was a nail file," Obi admits.</p>
  <p>Maul shrugs and goes back to his occipital horn.  "I use it on my claws, too, so I don't scratch Feral."</p>
  <p>"I want to use it," Feral says, far too excited about the prospect.</p>
  <p>Maul sighs, squinting at him, but relents, "I suppose your claws could use a quick file."</p>
  <p>And even Obi can tell he's just indulging the child, like a human father might let their little boy lather up with shaving cream and pretend to shave.  Still, Feral grins wide, canines flashing, obviously happy.</p>
  <p>Watching the two of them together is always an experience. </p>
  <p>Maul is, well, he's actually not a bad father.  Obi had just assumed upon meeting them that Maul was probably hateful with the boy, if not abusive and violent.  And sure, Maul is not particularly kind or overly affectionate.  He parents more with a tough-love mentality.  He demands respect and obedience, reminds Obi of some of the harsher Jedi Masters at the Academy, the ones that the young padawans were afraid of...</p>
  <p>Except that when Feral gets upset for whatever reason, usually bad dreams and worse memories, Maul silently holds the boy against his chest.  Feral purrs at him, sometimes cries and buries his face in the crook of Maul's neck, and Maul doesn't say a word, doesn't offer empty platitudes.  He just sits with the boy, holds him and rubs his back.</p>
  <p>It's the only time that insane fire inside Maul seems to calm, the only time his Force signature is not quite so chaotic.  Having Feral close seems to calm Maul as much as having Maul close seems to calm Feral.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>It all makes Obi wonder what they've been through these past few years.</p>
  <p>He does a bit of research about it on the holo-net.  Just out of curiosity, just because he has two new house guests, both victims of events with which he's not entirely familiar.  All official reports of the Dathomir massacres are very vague and whitewashed.  Obi doesn't find this surprising. Murdering an entire species doesn't look good, so the Empire has tried to gloss over it the best they can, make it seem more like a tragic battle with staggering losses than what it actually was: a genocide.</p>
  <p>It all happened just over three cycles ago.  And Feral is only four years old now.  Meaning that when Maul had left the planet, the boy must have been a babe-in-arms.  Obi tries to remember what Luke had been doing at around 12-months.  Taking his first steps and babbling baby-words, still on the bottle and still in diapers if Obi's memory serves him.</p>
  <p>Of course, that's assuming that Zabrak develop in the same way as humans, which is maybe a broad assumption.  But the two are more human than not.  Obi doesn't feel like it's too much of a leap to assume Maul left Dathomir with a crying baby cradled to his chest.</p>
  <p>It all makes Obi look at Maul in a different light.  As a Jedi, he'd always been taught that there was no way forward in the Dark.  That succumbing to the Dark meant turning toward a life filled only with pain and violence.</p>
  <p>Though as he watches Maul sit on his couch, Feral curled up against his side, he knows it's not true.  It doesn't explain what went wrong with Anakin—perhaps <em>that </em>is something distinctly Sith—but Maul's violent ends were not born from violent delights.  He's only done what he felt was necessary.</p>
  <p>That's probably been all he's ever done.</p>
  <p>It's a sad story.  A terrifying story.  An exhausting story. </p>
  <p>One Obi can relate to.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>They fall into a strange sort of domesticity. </p>
  <p>If anyone had told Obi ten years ago, five years ago, <em>kriff</em>, even one year ago he'd be playing house with two Nightbrothers, he'd have said they were crazy.  Two Dark-attuned Force users?  He'd cut them down immediately.</p>
  <p>But nowadays, he wakes up to Maul and Feral in his kitchen, to tea and eggs and bantha bacon.  He learns quick enough that Zabrak are carnivorous, at least for the most part.  They like most types of tea, and Maul develops a taste for caf once Obi introduces him to it.  They also like a variety of spices and marinates on their meats—though at the same time, Obi sees them both pick up live lizards and bugs from outside in the sand and eat them like snacks...</p>
  <p>Obi's not sure how he feels about this.  He tries to stay open-minded.  It's obviously a cultural thing, completely normal for them.  It's also absolutely disgusting.</p>
  <p>Feral likes sweet things too, chocolate and honey and sugar, though Maul doesn't have much interest in any of this.  He takes his tea plain, his coffee with milk.  And other than all that, tea leaves and coffee beans and spices, they don't eat any sort of plants or roots.  No fruits, no vegetables, no pasta or breads or pastries. </p>
  <p>Obi doesn't say anything about it, just starts making sure he stocks up on dried meats, barters for as much fresh meat as he can, as much that will keep.  He stills keeps some rice and vegetables for himself, but he likes meat too.  Likes jerky and beef and bacon and milk.  It's easy enough to just incorporate more protein into his own diet so that there's plenty for the Zabrak family to eat.</p>
  <p>Some days, Maul leaves Feral to entertain himself.  A few toys show up in the living area, one of the boy's favorites being a big stuffed tooka that he likes to cuddle with while he watches the holo-tube or plays games on Maul's holo-pad.  The other is a duraplastic lightsaber that Feral viciously chews on as often as he uses it for pretend lightsaber fights.  It concerns Obi at first—the toy actually has indentations from the boy's canines on it—but Maul doesn't seem concerned. </p>
  <p>"Is that safe to chew on?" Obi asks him one afternoon while Feral is going to town on it.</p>
  <p>Maul cuts his golden eyes over to him, putting his datapad down on his lap, and counters, "Do you think I would allow him to have something unsafe?"</p>
  <p>"I think..." Obi begins, picking and choosing his words.  "I think children don't come with a user manual."</p>
  <p>Maul keeps his glare turned on him for a few more moments, but then sighs and picks up his datapad again.  "It's fine," he replies.  "His canines still get sore.  Chewing makes him feel better."</p>
  <p>"He's still teething?" Obi asks, confused.</p>
  <p>"No," Maul says, not bothering to look up.  "His fangs aren't fully developed, and won't be for another cycle or so."</p>
  <p><em>Sounds like he's teething</em>, Obi thinks, but he nods regardless.  "Sanitize that tonight and throw it in the conservator so it'll be cold for him tomorrow," he suggests.</p>
  <p>Maul cuts his eyes around again, then grunts at him, noncommittal.  Still, the next morning, Obi catches Maul pulling the lightsaber toy out of the conservator and giving it to Feral, murmuring quiet to the boy, too quiet for Obi to hear what he's saying.  Regardless, Feral happily chews on it while Maul and Obi fix breakfast.  After they eat, Maul takes it away to throw it in the sanitizer and then back in the conservator. </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Feral doesn't complain about his toy being taken away.  He seems to know what's happening.  He's a smart little thing, almost too smart.</p>
  <p>Of course, Obi knows Maul has been teaching the boy.  Feral can read, even asks his father to find stories on the holo-net so he can practice.  He can do simple arithmetic as well, though he makes it clear to everyone in the house that this is not his favorite.  But he does what he's told. When Maul tells him they're sitting down to study, the boy doesn't cause a fuss. </p>
  <p>It doesn't occur to Obi that Maul might be tutoring the boy in the Force until he finds Maul out in the back with Feral.  They're settled down cross-legged on the sandstone, Feral all bare feet and wiggly toes, Maul shirtless in loose black trousers.  His durasteel feet shine silver in the sunlight.</p>
  <p>Maul holds Feral's hands, sitting across from him on the ground.  Their eyes are closed, heads bowed, seemingly meditating.  It's a familiar pose, one he's seen with many a Jedi Master and their padawan. Except Obi thought the Sith never meditated, only stewed in their hatred. </p>
  <p><em>They are not Sith</em>, Obi reminds himself.  It's something he has to <em>keep </em>reminding himself.  Old habits die hard, and he's always known Dark Force-users as Sith.  Maul is the first he's known who doesn't proudly claim himself a Sith Lord, but rather denounces the whole notion.</p>
  <p>Obi stands in the doorway and watches the two together.  He can feel the power between them, the harnessed strength there.  The air is heavy with it, sparking up underneath his skin.  And it's not just Maul he can feel.  Feral is mostly just mirroring his father's presence in the Force, reaching out from his little pinpoint of existence to move and touch and explore.  It's a common way to start off the very young, to let them learn and gain confidence.  Connecting with an experienced Force user is easy and safe.</p>
  <p>Obi didn't know Dark-side users trained in the same ways.</p>
  <p>The boy feels powerful with his wings unfurled.  He'll <em>be </em>powerful one day, once he learns how to wield the Force.  Obi wonders if Maul even realizes what he has in his hands.</p>
  <p>Fear is what is fueling the boy's power, in the same way that anger and instability seem to fuel Maul's.  Feral's presence in the Force trembles with it, practically screams from it.  Obi can only begin to imagine why.</p>
  <p>Like father, like son.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>Maul loosens up after a month or so, becomes less standoffish and... and not friendly, no.  But just not quite so easily aggravated. </p>
</div><div>
  <p>He speaks openly with Obi about a lot of things, subjects Obi was never expecting him to be forthcoming about.  But after many evenings of Obi telling stories about the Jedi Academy and Coruscant, tales from his journeys as a Jedi Master, Maul just starts talking.</p>
  <p>There's a lot there.  A lot of emotion.  A lot of pain and frustration.</p>
  <p>Obi learns that Maul never had a wife—or a mate as the Dathomiri call it.  He was kept in the Nightsister Fortress as something of a guard and a servant, and he coupled with the Sisters whenever he was ordered to.  It was a <em>privilege</em>, Maul's own words, to give them children born strong in the Force.  Many came to him instead of their mates, as he tells it. </p>
  <p>"All my children were like him," Maul says quietly, motioning to Feral where the boy is playing on the back patio.  "Born with the Force at their fingers.  Power flowing through their veins.  As was I."</p>
  <p>"I can feel it in him," Obi allows.  "But I have never seen him use the Force.  Perhaps he just does not in front of me..."</p>
  <p>Maul is quiet for a long moment, then he says, "He's frightened by it.  By what he's capable of.  His life has not been easy—not anything like a child's should be."</p>
  <p>"I've gathered as much," Obi says, frowning.</p>
  <p>He expects elaboration on that, but then Maul grins, such a small thing.  "After I first left with him, I settled in an abandoned hut on Yavin.  He was still just a tiny thing, and I made a crib from durasteel scraps for him, padded the edges so he wouldn't hurt himself.  But he would climb out and wake me up near every night."</p>
  <p>Obi laughs.  "He was using the Force to let himself out."</p>
  <p>"It took me far too long to figure that out, but yes," Maul says, smirking.  "I had no clue what I was doing with him.  I still don't.  My duty was to the Sisters, to serve and protect, not care for their children."</p>
  <p>"You're doing right by him," Obi says.  "He knows you love him.  That's what matters."</p>
  <p>Maul gives him an odd look.  After a tense silence, he says, "I am loyal to him."</p>
  <p>It's a strange thing to say.  Obi gets the feeling he's trying to refute the statement about love, which... he can't.  Feral is the center of his universe.  He's proven that already.  Actions and behavior speak louder than words.</p>
  <p>Obi doesn't say anything about it, though.  Doesn't call him out.  Perhaps it's a cultural thing.  Perhaps loyalty to a child <em>is </em>love to a Dathomir.</p>
  <p>Apart from Feral, Maul's other favorite topics of conversation are the Jedi and the Sith.  He equates them both as equals—<em>"They are constructs created to seize and hold onto power," </em>Maul says,<em> "the Force-users only pawns in a greater game"</em>—which usually starts a fierce argument between the two.</p>
  <p>The problem is, his assessment rings a little too close to home for comfort, and it's a little too soon for Obi to swallow it.</p>
  <p>There is one thing that Obi is unbearably curious about, though...</p>
  <p>Maul's legs.</p>
  <p>It's the one big thing no one talks about.  No one, not even Feral, ever says anything about Maul's legs.</p>
  <p>What happened to them?  When did it happen?  And how far up is the amputation?  It seems like they're at least over the knee—there is mechanical creaking whenever he moves, when he walks and sits and stands.  But it could be higher, the connections could include hip joints, which could mean...</p>
  <p>Maul is stunningly exotic.  Obi has never thought himself a xenophiliac, has never found himself attracted to anyone nonhuman before.  But there is something gorgeous about the patterns on Maul's skin, about the danger in his canines and horned crown. </p>
  <p>Obi is pretty sure the amputation is somewhere thigh level.  The robotic legs seem to be purely that—robotic.  He doesn't seem to have any sort of digestion or filtration assistive devices.  He uses the toilet in the 'fresher just like everyone else.  Not that it would be a deal-breaker if he <em>was </em>metal from the waist down.  The man still has a mouth, still has fingers.  People make dildos.  Plus, they're both Force-wielders, which opens up a whole host of other possibilities. </p>
  <p>But then Obi gets his answer in the strangest way imaginable...</p>
  <p>It's a hot dry morning about three months after the two Zabrak's arrival, and Obi wakes up to find Feral alone in the kitchen.  The boy looks up from where he's chewing on his lightsaber toy, and then smiles at Obi.</p>
  <p>"Where's your Papa?" Obi asks, reaching for the kettle to start some tea. </p>
  <p>"He's sick," Feral says.</p>
  <p>Obi frowns, realizing suddenly that he can't <em>feel </em>the other Zabrak in the hut.  He's gotten so used to that chaos and madness and burning passion, it's just become a part of his home—which is a whole disturbing realization in itself.  But then realizing that for whatever reason Maul has his shields up to the point of invisibility...</p>
  <p>Obi turns back to look at Feral and clarifies, "Sick?"</p>
  <p>Feral nods.  He doesn't seem concerned.  "Yessir.  He's in bed."</p>
  <p>"Alright.  Well, you can take him some tea once it's ready," Obi says, still worried.  Then, an afterthought, "And some breakfast if he feels up for it."</p>
  <p>But Feral is already shaking his head.  "I'm not allowed in there until he says," Feral tells Obi, golden eyes wide.</p>
  <p>"Okay, you don't have to," Obi assures him.  "I'll take it to him."</p>
  <p>"You can't go either," Feral says.  The boy is beginning to look scared.  "He said no one is allowed.  He said not to let you down there either."</p>
  <p>"Is he contagious?" Obi asks, the first and obvious question in his mind.  He's already thinking of ways to quarantine themselves away from Maul, while still getting the essentials to the other Zabrak...</p>
  <p>But Feral shakes his head no.  "It's his six-month sickness," he answers.</p>
  <p>Which makes no sense, but Obi nods anyway, pretending he understands.  He'll just check on Maul when he goes into the cellar to the conservator.  Make sure the man is okay.</p>
  <p>He's not expecting what he finds, though he immediately understands why the man is shielding his Force signature.  It's clear what he's doing by the noise, the quiet grunting and snarling, the rustle of bedclothes.  It's the sort of activity that breeds a certain emotion and sensation.  The sort that you wouldn't want a young child picking up on. </p>
  <p>Obi can't help himself, the opportunity is too good.  He wanders over and leans against the metal partition, peaking in.  Maul is belly down, hips working against the mattress, face buried in his pillow and visibly biting at it.  There's a blanket thrown haphazardly over him, the pattern of tattoos over his back and shoulders bared, one metal leg thrown out to the side, knee shoved down into the bed. </p>
  <p>Obi swallows down his arousal, says instead, "If you needed a minute alone, all you had to do was ask."</p>
  <p>Maul's shields abruptly break apart, and Obi is assaulted by a wave of burning arousal and desperation to the point of insanity.  It's so strong it almost knocks him off his feet, which is part of the reason he just stands there while Maul turns his head on the pillow, eyes wild, and reaches out for him. </p>
  <p>The wall is horribly solid when Obi collides with it, tendrils of Dark Force wrapped around his body, tight and suffocating.  Maul growls, then flings his arm up.  Obi finds himself thrown down onto the mattress on top of Maul. Maul grunts at the impact. </p>
  <p>It's about that time Obi gets a hold of himself.  He shoves Maul down underneath himself with his hands and the Force, keeps him from crawling out from under him and...</p>
  <p>Obi has a fairly good idea of where Maul was about to take this.  He wishes he could say he is more fearful and angry and disgusted.  He wishes he could say he is less aroused.</p>
  <p>He locks it all down, though, and hisses, "Get yourself under control!  Your son is upstairs!"</p>
  <p>Maul pants for breath, but he quickly pulls it all back, reassembles his mental walls.  Then, finally, he snarls, "Get off me, you fool.  I told Feral not to let you down here.  That boy is..."</p>
  <p>"It's not his fault," Obi says, warily getting up and letting Maul go.  Maul stays where he is, doesn't try to follow, but Obi still stays alert.  "He told me, but I didn't listen."</p>
  <p>"Then you're twice the fool I thought you were," Maul growls. </p>
  <p>Obi takes a breath, swallows, and looks at him.  Really looks at him—at the sheen of sweat on his skin, at the way his pupils are dilated like he's drugged, at the way his fingers are curled into the mattress. </p>
  <p>The blanket has slipped off in their struggle, revealing the curve of his ass, tattooed like the rest of him, and the connections of his cybernetic legs.  They're high on his thighs, the left one connected nearly at the ischium.  But he's obviously intact, original equipment, and Obi suddenly realizes...</p>
  <p>"You're not sick.  You cycle like the Iridonian Zabrak.  You're in rut."</p>
  <p>"Disgusting word," Maul spits.  "I'm not an animal."</p>
  <p>Obi turns to leave, to give the man his privacy, but he says over his shoulder, "I never said you were.  It's your species' biology.  That is all."</p>
  <p>Maul doesn't say anything to that, and Obi is past the partition and on his way out of the cellar when Maul calls out to him.  "Your emotions betray you, Jedi Master."</p>
  <p>Obi makes the mistake of pausing and glancing back.  He can't see Maul or even the mattress past the durasteel partition, but Maul obviously hears that he's lingering.</p>
  <p>"You hold yourself to such a higher standard.  You have your moral code.  You think that because you are of the Light and I am of the Dark you are superior, but you and I are the same," Maul says.</p>
  <p>"I know what I've seen over the years.  It takes great strength to resist the Dark," Obi says.  "You and I are <i>not</i> same."</p>
  <p>"You Jedi proclaim yourselves above emotional attachment and physical pleasure," Maul interrupts him, "Yet when I threw you across this room, you <em>reeked</em> of arousal."</p>
  <p>Obi closes his eyes.  "I never said I was above human emotion," he answers.  "The key is to not be ruled by it."</p>
  <p>"I suppose that is a good thing," Maul sneers.  "You could not handle a Zabrak in the throes.  I would <em>break </em>you."</p>
  <p>Obi has nothing further to say, so he just ascends the steps up out of the cellar and leaves Maul to himself.  He finds Feral sitting on the couch, watching him in concern. </p>
  <p>"I told you..." the boy says.</p>
  <p>"I know you did," Obi says.  He wonders how much Feral knows, what Maul has told him about this.  What sort of Talk they've had, if any.  He sighs, says, "You can stay out here on the couch until your Papa is better."</p>
  <p>"Yessir," Feral agrees.</p>
  <p>And then, because he has to ask, "Has he ever hurt you?"</p>
  <p>Feral actually looks angry, <em>feels </em>angry, that Obi would even ask.  "No," he snaps.  "He keeps me safe."</p>
  <p>Obi nods.  "Alright," he says.  "Then let's have breakfast."</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>That night, Obi goes to Maul.</p>
  <p>He lies to himself about it.  He tells himself he's going to ensure Feral's safety.  To make sure Maul knows Obi will cut him down and take care of the boy himself if there is <em>anything </em>going on.  If Maul even considers it once at any point, Obi will kill him.</p>
  <p>Except if the Dathomirian Zabrak are like the Iridonian Zabrak, then he never would.  There are certain instinctive scent cues amongst their kind—the Zabrak's own child would <em>always </em>smell like their child, never a potential sexual mate.  It's something Obi can remember learning in his books as a padawan.</p>
  <p>And none of that explains why he grabs a pot of oil from the 'fresher before he goes.  It's one of Maul's, the oil he uses around his horns to keep the skin soft.  There's no way he can reason that away aside from the obvious.</p>
  <p>Maybe it's just been too long.  He hasn't had anyone in his bed, hasn't <em>been </em>in anyone's bed since Qui-Gon.  He's lost so very many people since then.  He knows he's lonely, in that objective sort of way he can look at himself and recognize what he is struggling with.  Struggling without succumbing.  </p>
  <p>Maul is a constant maelstrom in his home.  Chaotic passionate emotion. </p>
  <p>It will feel good to struggle with <em>that </em>for a change.</p>
  <p>He checks on Feral first, but the boy is sound asleep on the couch, his Force signature small and quiet and calm.  And so Obi descends into the cellar.</p>
  <p>He finds Maul asleep, sprawled out on his back, making that quiet rumbling noise Obi has heard him make before in his sleep.  His cock is half-hard against his thigh, the metal connection there so high it's near touching the tip. </p>
  <p>He's tattooed, all of him, shaft and foreskin and testicles.  Obi's not sure why he's surprised.</p>
  <p>Obi shrugs out of his robe, keeping his mind carefully blank.  The near-silent noise of the clothing hitting the floor is all it takes to wake Maul, and the Zabrak tilts his head to look.  Their eyes meet, and a wicked grin spreads across Maul's face.</p>
  <p>"You still reek," Maul says.  Repeats, "I will <em>break </em>you."</p>
  <p>Obi doesn't bother to reply.  He just pulls his tunic off, then pushes down his trousers.  When Maul props himself up on an elbow, watching with interest, Obi throws a hand out and Force-pushes him back down onto the bed.  Maul laughs at him, struggling weakly, but Obi keeps hold of him as he takes the few steps over to the bed, oil in hand, and kneels down. </p>
  <p>"Stay there," Obi tells him, throwing a leg over Maul's waist.  Maul watches, seemingly amused by the whole affair.  Obi meets his eye while he opens the jar of oil and slicks up his fingers.</p>
  <p>"Oh how the great Jedi Master falls," Maul sneers.  "As needy as any Twi'lek whore."</p>
  <p>Obi can feel the spark of anger in his gut, sharp and hot, but he pushes it back quickly.  "Be quiet," he orders.</p>
  <p>Maul grunts at him in reply.  Or maybe just in reaction to what Obi is doing to himself.  Big hands settle on Obi's hips, fingers curling down over his buttock and inching inward.  Interested and questing.  Obi lets Maul touch, lets him run a blunt claw around where he's fingering himself, though he doesn't let the Zabrak rise up from the bed.</p>
  <p>He's walking a tight line here, he knows.  He has to remain in control.</p>
  <p>He continues to let Maul keep touching while he reaches underneath himself and finds Maul's cock.  He's big, thick and full and blood-hot in Obi's hand, and there's a tiny frilled ridge running up the underside of the shaft.  Obi rubs his fingers over it, exploring.  It's malleable and skin-soft, feels something like cartilage. </p>
  <p>He'll feel good inside, Obi thinks.  He's never been with a Zabrak before, never been with anyone who wasn't human.  He grins down at Maul while he rubs Maul's cockhead between his legs, teasing himself, teasing them both.  Maul starts to struggle again, hips wiggling back and forth, trying to thrust up.  He teeth are bared, have been for a while.</p>
  <p>There's the pressure and stretch and burn as Obi starts to push down, and then it's one mistake, one brief lapse.  He's too attuned to himself, attention too focused on his own sensation and pain and pleasure, and once Maul has an inch he takes a mile. </p>
  <p>Obi finds himself flipped over onto his stomach, Maul looming over his back, pushing him down into the mattress.  He tries to push back, tries to get back up, but Maul's not only keeping him down with his body, he's keeping him down with the Force.</p>
  <p>And with so much fuel to his fire right now, all the desperation and arousal and lust, it feels as though there is a bantha bull sitting on Obi's back.</p>
  <p>"Maul," Obi says, though it comes out weak and breathless.  He's still hard, his erection pressed into the sheets.  The rooms seems like it's spinning.</p>
  <p>"Silence," Maul snarls, hands shoving at his shoulders.  He shuffles around, a metal knee knocking Obi's legs further apart.  "You came down here to me.  Even when you knew..."</p>
  <p>"I know," Obi says.  Maul leans over him, growling in his ear at the interruption.</p>
  <p>"So you decided to come in here and use me as you saw fit," Maul snaps.  He pauses, and Obi feels the sudden sharp pain of teeth at the back of his neck. </p>
  <p>"That's not..." Obi starts, breathless, even though it is.  He was lonely, and Maul was readily available—Maul just spoke the words aloud. </p>
  <p>He's becoming weak.</p>
  <p>Maul laughs at him, then delicately licks over the bitemark he's left.  Obi can feel him grinding up between his legs, leaving smears of slick up the cleft of his ass.  He tries to stay relaxed so that when the inevitable happens, it won't be so painful.  </p>
  <p>"I was used by the Sisters," Maul speaks up, his lips brushing the back of Obi's neck.  "I won't be used again."</p>
  <p>"I know.  And I'm sorry," Obi says.</p>
  <p>Maul huffs at him.  "Yet you came here anyway wanting to be mounted."</p>
  <p>It's such a strange turn of phrase.  So animalistic that it makes Obi blush.  "I... wanted to have sex, yes," Obi allows, face feeling as though it's on fire.</p>
  <p>Maul's lips brush up the back of his neck, then further, until the Zabrak is nosing at his hair.  "Well," he says eventually.  "You are kind to me.  And kind to my boy.  And I—I am... you smell <em>lovely</em>..."</p>
  <p>Obi tries to move again, tries to push back with the Force, but Maul's strong.  He shoves back harder as soon as he realizes Obi is struggling, and he bites the back of his neck again, teeth sharp and quick.  Obi gasps, abruptly aware of what is about to happen as Maul repositions himself, durasteel joints whirring and creaking.</p>
  <p>It hurts.  The Zabrak's cock is big, and it's been a long time since Obi's done this.  He breathes into the pillow, hands tight on the edges, while Maul ruts his way inside.  Maul doesn't particularly seem to care.  He's far too caught up in whatever hormone rush he's feeling.  His Force signature is a wild red array of lust and pleasure, though at least he's keeping it contained between them.  Feral won't know what's happening should the boy wake up.</p>
  <p>Maul repositions himself again, pulling a foot up underneath himself for leverage, then starts fucking into him... and <em>hard</em>.  Hard enough to push Obi up the mattress, and Obi has to throw a hand out in front of him, slam it against the wall so he doesn't end up hitting his head.  Maul is obviously just chasing his own pleasure, caught up in the instinctive need of his rut and not thinking about who is underneath him.  Obi braces himself to withstand the storm.</p>
  <p>But it's odd how the pain just melts into pleasure.  Sure, it's still there.  Obi can still feel the burn and stretch in his ass, can definitely feel where Maul's teeth are digging into the back of his neck.  But suddenly his belly is coiled up hot, and his cock is so heavy and sensitive against the bedsheets.  Maul feels so good inside him, filling him up and rubbing against his prostate just right.</p>
  <p>The little ridge of cartilage up the underside of Maul's cock?  <em>Kriff</em>, but it's just perfect...</p>
  <p>He hikes himself up on his knees and reaches a hand under himself to wrap around his cock.  Maul's hard thrusts push his body back and forth, back and forth, and he pumps himself fast and quick, spills himself over his hand with a bitten-off moan. </p>
  <p>He collapses back down into the wet spot he's made, too tired and sated to care.  He winces, the pleasure beginning to recede and leaving just the pain, but he's content to let Maul finish...</p>
  <p>At least, he's content to let Maul finish until he begins to feel an uncomfortable stretch at his rim.  It takes him too long to figure out what's happening—he's aware of these things, of course, but he's never actually <em>been </em>with an alien—and by then Maul is just grinding his hips in tiny circles, grunting quietly.  Trying to get the knot inside.</p>
  <p>Obi rises up on his elbows and tries to throw him off with the Force, but they're practically <em>in </em>each other's minds, relaxed there together while their bodies are joined.  Obi has the thought to be surprised he allowed this, to be surprised <em>Maul </em>allowed this, before Maul is shoving him back down, body and mind alike, growling and snapping and biting at him. </p>
  <p>The knot doesn't hurt as much as Obi was expecting.  It's more intense than anything, just <em>a lot</em> so close after he just came, and <em>even more </em>with the big Zabrak biting at his shoulder and grunting his way through orgasm.  Maul comes for a long time, longer than human men do, and the sound of his pleasure is...</p>
  <p>Obi wouldn't mind hearing it again, wouldn't mind seeing that tattooed face when while he comes. </p>
  <p>Maul gets wobbly afterward.  Obi is pretty sure the robo-knees are going to give out whether Maul wants them to or not, so he makes the executive decision to slowly roll to his side.  Maul follows the motion as planned, and they end up lying on their sides, Maul pressed up against Obi's back.</p>
  <p>Maul heaves a sigh, throws an arm over Obi's side, and mumbles, "Fuck..."</p>
  <p><em>Yeah</em>, Obi thinks.  Instead, he asks, "How long?"</p>
  <p>"How long, what?" Maul asks.  He sounds almost drunk.</p>
  <p><em>Until I can get up and get in the sonic</em>, Obi thinks.  "Until, uhm... Deflation," he says.</p>
  <p>"Oh," Maul says.  A tongue laves over the back of Obi's neck.  "About thirty minutes while I'm... when I am in rut."</p>
  <p>"Okay," Obi says, staring at the wall.  Maul licks the back of his neck again, and then again, slow and soothing over the bitemarks.  It's so odd yet, at the same time, sort of pleasant.</p>
  <p>"It's not so long when I'm not... not like this.  Only about five minutes then," Maul says, as though that has any bearing on anything.</p>
  <p>Obi nods in acknowledgement, then shivers as teeth close over his shoulder.  Maul doesn't bite down, doesn't break the skin, just mouths at him, works at the flesh, <em>almost </em>kisses him.  He'll have a purple lovebite there come morning, along with all the <em>actual </em>bites Maul left.</p>
  <p>Obi drifts asleep wondering if biting is a Zabrak sexual behavior, or if Maul just has a particularly bloody oral fetish.</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm being a little wordy, so this looks like it will end up being 4 parts instead of the original 3 I'd planned.  Ooops, sorry about that. :P</p><p>Anyway, hope you enjoy!  Thank you all so much for your comments and kudos, I appreciate and love every single one of them. &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="">
  <p>They fuck again in the early hours of the morning, long before the first sun has risen in the sky.  </p>
  <p>Obi wakes up both sore and aroused with Maul nosing at the back of his neck, and he tries to throw the Zabrak off, except not really.  He probably could manage to get out of the bed and back upstairs if he really put his mind to it, if he centered himself and concentrated.  Maul is tired and distracted, strangely affectionate as he crawls on top of Obi.  There's no Force push against Obi's back at first, just the warm weight of the Zabrak's body.  Maul only uses his power against him once Obi uses his own.</p>
  <p>Maul doesn't fuck him as hard, though Obi's fairly sure it has nothing to do with any sort of sympathy or consideration for Obi's comfort.  Maul still knots him, and it's as intense as it was the night before.  But Maul is clearly exhausted, sleepy, feels feverish against Obi's back while they lie together afterward.  </p>
  <p>Inanely, Obi wonders when the last time was that Maul had anything to drink.  </p>
  <p>Once they untie—Maul slipping out of him with a disgustingly wet noise—Obi gets up from the bed and dresses quickly.  Maul watches him, purring quiet in the back of his throat, a deep low noise that Obi doesn't know what to do with.  <em>Hormones</em>, Obi tells himself.  <em>His system is flooded with too much oxytocin.  He's not himself.</em></p>
  <p>Obi goes to the kitchen and makes tea, refusing to really think about what he's doing.  He's good at keeping his feelings under wraps.  Love all and love no one.  That's what he's doing.  </p>
  <p>Part of a Jedi's duty is to care.  That's all he is doing.  </p>
  <p>He pours himself a cup of tea, then takes a cup and the rest of the pot down to the cellar.  Maul's already dozing when Obi returns, but those red-gold eyes slip open to hazily regard Obi as he sets the pot down next to the mattress.  "Here," Obi says, while Maul gives him a long, rumbling purr.  "I don't know how much you've had to drink.  You feel feverish."</p>
  <p>"Fever is part of this," Maul tells him, but he reaches over for the cup and kettle nonetheless.  </p>
  <p>"You've mellowed quite a bit," Obi observes.</p>
  <p>"Mmm," Maul grunts, then takes a long drink of the tea.  It's hot, very hot, but apparently the temperature doesn't bother him.  Finally, Maul says, "I've tied.  A couple of times.  Yes, I feel... much better."</p>
  <p>"Oh.  That... that's good," Obi says.  It suddenly occurs to Obi that with Feral around to watch over, Maul probably hasn't had the opportunity to fuck or tie with anyone in a while.  And though Obi would think there are some sort of toys for men like Maul—after all, not every Zabrak can have a partner to tie with during their rut—it seems like Maul might not own any.  Or at least if he does, he wasn't using one.</p>
  <p>When Obi goes to leave, Maul stops him with a murmured question.  "My boy, is he alright?"</p>
  <p class="">Obi smiles softly.  "He's fine.  He's asleep on the couch.  We had meatballs and milk last night for dinner, then he read for a while before he fell asleep.  Don't worry, he's fine."</p>
  <p>"Good, I'm glad," Maul says.  "I appreciate you watching him.  Normally I have to care for him during all of this and... it is difficult."</p>
  <p>Obi's stomach sinks, and he asks, "Have you ever hurt him?"</p>
  <p>The growl that comes out of Maul is deadly, and he claws his way up to sit.  "If you are going to continue accusing me of molesting my child, look me in the eye and just <em>say it</em>."</p>
  <p>"I was..." Obi says, then sighs, rubbing a hand over his face.  Maul looks ready to jump up from the mattress and lunge at him, all his calm satisfaction gone, so Obi says, "You said it was difficult to care for him during this time."</p>
  <p>"Yes... but you do not understand."  He sneers at Obi, lip curled up to reveal one canine.  "How could a <em>human </em>understand?  Being sick with this insanity, but having a child to feed and wash and comfort all the while."</p>
  <p>Obi sighs, shaking his head.  Maul is right.  There is a lot he doesn't understand, but he's trying.  He is trying to be tolerant and kind.  Sometimes, though, Maul pushes him to his limits.</p>
  <p>But now is obviously not the time to start a discussion.</p>
  <p>Obi leaves Maul with his tea and a promise to look after Feral, and during the day, he tries not to think about what's most liking happening in his cellar.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>It lasts three days.  Maul leaves the cellar only to use the 'fresher, during which time he always checks on Feral.  He doesn't go near the boy, only looks as if to assure himself Feral is alive and well.  Feral does much the same thing, stays far clear but makes sure he lays eyes on his father, says hello and purrs at him.</p>
  <p>Then, on the fourth morning, Maul comes up from the cellar for a shower and then the usual breakfast.  Feral cautiously investigates once Maul sits down to eat, eventually laying his little head down on Maul's shoulder and sniffing at his tunic.  Maul continues to eat, unperturbed.  Obi watches in silence until finally Feral declares, "You smell normal again."</p>
  <p>"I know," Maul tells him.</p>
  <p>And then, just like that, the two are back to their usual selves, their usual interactions.  Maul goes back to teaching Feral's lessons and tutoring him in the Force.  Goes back to watching the boy grow and play with his usual silent affection. </p>
  <p>Maul takes the sheets, blankets, and pillows off the bed and throws them in the sanitizer.  Once everything is clean, Feral goes back to staying with his father during the night.  </p>
  <p>Obi sometimes goes into the cellar to get food from the conservator late at night.  After the two Zabrak have already retired to their room, or corner as it were.  Maul is always propped up on pillows, busy with his holo-pad, while Feral is usually curled up asleep, face pressed to Maul's ribcage.  </p>
  <p>Maul's face, his horns and tattoos and silvery fangs, it all used to remind him of nothing but pain and death.  Now, he looks and sees a father, a fighter, maybe even a friend...  Someone capable of feeling love and happiness as much as hate and fear.</p>
  <p>It's funny how the ghost of Darth Savage became a real person.</p>
  <p>Afterward, they don't talk about the sex.  But then Feral is usually around underfoot.  Wherever Maul goes, Feral is usually close behind.  There's not much room in their little home for adult conversation.</p>
  <p>Obi supposes it's for the best.  What's there to talk about, after all?  Maul was in rut, and Obi had an itch that needed scratching.  It was just a mutually beneficial situation.  Nothing that needs discussing now.</p>
  <p>It's just over a week when Maul comes up from the cellar about an hour after he and Feral had both gone to bed.  He comes back up alone, and when Obi meets his eye, Maul announces, "The boy is asleep.  We need to have a conversation."</p>
  <p>"Ah," Obi says, laying his holo-pad aside.  "I... didn't know there was anything to talk about."</p>
  <p>Maul frowns at him, and his Force signature wavers, a little flurry of passionate emotion.  He huffs, then says, "I do not want to be thrown out of this home because I harmed you."  </p>
  <p>"You didn't harm me," Obi says.  Maul doesn't believe him.  Obi can see it and feel it.  So he sighs and says, "Yes, you bit me.  But simple flesh wounds can be healed.  I used to be a Jedi, you do remember, yes?  It is your favorite insult."</p>
  <p>"Mmm," Maul hums.  "My mind is often a haze during my cycle, but I can remember wielding the Force against you.  And I remember knotting you—you are a human male, not made for such things."</p>
  <p>Obi feels himself blushing, his face hot.  "You—it's okay.  It wasn't bad."</p>
  <p>"Fuck, just what every man wants to hear," Maul says, sardonic.  "It <em>wasn't bad</em>."</p>
  <p>And <em>kriff</em>, if Obi blushes any harder, his face is going to catch fire.  "That's not what I meant.  I just—it had been some time since I'd been with anyone, and yes it was... a lot.  But it wasn't bad—or I mean, it was good."</p>
  <p>Maul is quiet, studying him with those golden eyes.  "You flush so easy.  All that pink human skin, as red as mine..."</p>
  <p>Obi shakes his head and rubs his hands over his face.  "Well, you caught me off-guard," he says.</p>
  <p>"Do all humans become so flustered over this subject?" Maul asks, seeming honestly curious.  "Or are you an anomaly?"</p>
  <p>Obi can't help but laugh.  "I'm perhaps the wrong person to ask," he says.  "It's said that physical pleasures can lead to emotional attachments.  And emotional attachments are something Jedi cannot afford to keep."</p>
  <p>"Yet you say you are no longer a Jedi," Maul points out. </p>
  <p>"Yes, and since then I have been out here in the sands.  Alone," Obi points out.  "Not a lot of opportunity."</p>
  <p>"Mmm, fair," Maul says. But then he frowns, asks, "So you never?  Before that night?"</p>
  <p>Obi laughs.  "Do not patronize me, Maul.  It had been some time, but... you were not my first."</p>
  <p>"You did not follow the rules of your own order.  How interesting," Maul observes, his frown turning to a smirk.  He pauses, settling himself down on the coffee table across from Obi.  When he meets Obi's gaze again, his smirk is filthy.  "I assumed as much.  You didn't act like a virgin."</p>
  <p>"<em>Kriff...</em>" Obi grates out, closing his eyes and shaking his head.  Maul remains quiet for a moment, just watching him, seemingly waiting for him to elaborate.  But Obi doesn't know what else to say.</p>
  <p>"I cannot decide what to think of it all," Maul says.  "It takes a certain sort of person to walk in and climb on top of a Zabrak in rut.  Many of the Sisters would order us bound and our magics muted before they would even approach us."</p>
  <p>Obi frowns.  "You weren't dangerous," he says, even believes it.  "I never felt as though my life was at risk."</p>
  <p>"There's more to danger that lethality," Maul says.  His eyes are piercing.  "I think you found that out."</p>
  <p>"If I had truly wanted out—if I had... wanted you to stop," Obi says, still so embarrassed.  He doesn't know how Maul seems so collected.  "I would have thrown you off of me."</p>
  <p>"And you truly believe that?" Maul asks.  "Because I remember.  The time is hazy in my mind, as I said, but I remember you struggling with me, <em>fighting </em>me.  And I remember <em>enjoying </em>it."</p>
  <p>The way he says the words—almost hissing, a nasty sneer on his face, his eyes gleaming in the soft indoor lighting.  Obi wants to reach out to the Force and throw him across the room.  Obi wants to crawl into his lap and kiss him.  </p>
  <p>"You used to have yourself so well controlled," Maul comments, still watching him.  "I could rarely read you or feel you.  Now?  You fall a bit more every day."</p>
  <p>"I've killed one of your kind before," Obi blurts out.  "He was a big beast, bigger than you, stronger than you.  So yes, I could have fought you..."</p>
  <p>Maul's reaction is sudden and unexpected.  He stands up, lunging the few steps between the coffee table and couch to grab Obi by the front of his tunic.  Teeth bared, he snarls, "Savage Opress was my brother.  Do not speak of him in my presence."</p>
  <p>Something in Obi lurches sideways.  He thinks he's going to be sick.  "Savage?  <em>Darth Savage?</em>"</p>
  <p>"That was not a title he chose," Maul spits.  "He was only an instrument, a puppet for both my village and the Sith.  He was taken from my side when we were children, and I mourn him every day."</p>
  <p>"You <em>mourn </em>him?" Obi snaps.  "He killed my Master!  My teacher and mentor and..."</p>
  <p>"And you killed <em>him</em>.  My little brother.  My <em>only </em>brother," Maul snaps.  "I have no sympathy for you."</p>
  <p>Obi doesn't think, just reacts—probably proof that Maul is right, he's slowly falling from the Light.  Regardless, he shoves his hands against Maul's chest and Force-pushes him.  Maul flies back with a snarl, hitting the wall with a thud and clang of metal limbs.  He hauls himself up still baring his teeth, but then goes quiet, lax, turning his head toward the cellar.</p>
  <p>"Feral is awake," he says suddenly.</p>
  <p>"Go," Obi says, silently fuming.  "We're quite done here."</p>
  <p>"I disagree," Maul says.</p>
  <p>"Well," Obi says.  "It's my home, after all.  And I thought you didn't want to be thrown out."</p>
  <p>It's a cruel thing to say, but it sends Maul back down to the cellar without another word, only one last show of teeth.  And Obi's gotten so used to seeing his canines flashed over every small slight, it doesn't hold much impact anymore.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>Obi avoids Maul the next day, then goes to bed early on the off chance that Maul comes back up looking for him once Feral's asleep.  If Maul does come back out, though, Obi doesn't hear him.</p>
  <p>Maul's obviously trying to avoid him as well, but the hut is small.  It's difficult for Obi to exist in the same space without coming face to face with those tattoos—and they are so similar to Darth Savage's, <em>so similar</em>.  It's as though the two received the same basic patterns on their faces, some symbolism that they were of the same clan or family.</p>
  <p>Obi feels like an idiot for not realizing the implications sooner.  </p>
  <p>Though as time passes, he begins to regret what he said.  Begins to regret judging Maul for his grief.  Of course the Zabrak mourns for his brother.  Obi still mourns for Anakin even after what Anakin did.  Maul's grief is completely understandable... as is his obvious anger at Obi for ending his brother's life.  </p>
  <p>Though Obi doesn't know why he's stayed here this entire time.  He's clearly known this entire time that Obi was his brother's killer, lunged at Obi over Savage as soon as the opportunity was provided.  Word of his brother's death and the Jedi responsible must have made it back to Dathomir at some point, and Obi's name must have stuck in Maul's head, preyed on his mind all these years.  </p>
  <p>So why live with the enemy for months?  Moreover, why <em>fuck </em>the enemy?</p>
  <p>Any port in a storm?</p>
  <p>Is that Obi's excuse too?  A found family, Dark as they may be.  Companionship and comfort, the touch of another's hand and the feel of another's body.  No longer alone.</p>
  <p>Any port in a storm.</p>
  <p>It's perhaps a week later that Maul comes to him.  Obi is still hiding away in his bedroom, going to bed early in an attempt to avoid the other man, but Maul just lets himself inside, announces, "You <em>infuriate </em>me!"</p>
  <p>"Oh, hello.  Yes, come on inside," Obi says, sarcastic.  Maul sneers at him, while Obi adds, "I assume Feral is asleep."</p>
  <p>"Of course he is," Maul snaps.  </p>
  <p>"Alright, I was just checking..."</p>
  <p>"You're hiding from me," Maul interrupts.  </p>
  <p>"I'm trying to sort through my thoughts," Obi counters.</p>
  <p>"Well, I've given you enough time," Maul says.</p>
  <p>"How much time I need is not your decision," Obi tells him.</p>
  <p>Maul huffs, angry, his Force signature swirling in passionate rage.  He throws himself down to sit on the end of Obi's bed, his back to Obi.  He has his nighttime robe on, soft woven black threads covering up the patterns Obi knows are on the skin.  </p>
  <p>Obi stares at the back of his head, at his occipital and temporal horns.  Finally, he just says, "I don't know what you want from me."</p>
  <p>"All that time ago, when you introduced yourself in Mos Eisley," Maul says unbidden, glancing to his side as though to look over his shoulder.  He doesn't meet Obi's gaze.  "I knew you immediately, I recognized your name.  I was near blinded by my fury, and I followed you that evening to kill you."</p>
  <p>Obi swallows.  He hadn't even realized...  His lightsaber is in its crate in the corner, a quick pull away, and he slowly inches his arm in its direction.</p>
  <p>"But I arrived here and realized—the Light down the dunes," Maul says, and Obi's heart still in his chest.  He reaches out with the Force and pulls his lightsaber to hand.  That gets Maul's full attention, and Maul turns to the side on the bed to look back.  He frowns and says, "I'm unarmed."</p>
  <p>"I don't care," Obi says.  "I'll kill you in cold blood over this."</p>
  <p>Maul is quiet for a long moment, eyes scanning his face, before he comments, "Your signature will be Dark this time next cycle.  Your eyes will be golden."</p>
  <p>And maybe he's afraid Maul is right, but he says, "I don't believe you."</p>
  <p>Maul looks away with a sigh.  He doesn't comment on Obi's skepticism, but instead says, "I know what you're protecting.  <em>Who</em> you're protecting.  I've seen him in my mind's eye—seen him many times."</p>
  <p>Obi swallows, thumbing over the controls on his saber.  "When you say you've seen him..."</p>
  <p>"I've seen many things over the years," Maul says.  "Not all of it means anything, but I saw the Nightsister Fortress fall, and I saw my brother's death.  I saw children fall ill and women die in childbirth, always long before it ever happened."</p>
  <p>"Premonitions," Obi murmurs.  Maul nods.</p>
  <p>"I believe I saw the fall of your Jedi Temple," Maul says.  "I saw a man in black robes leading an army down a gilded hallway.  I saw slaughter.  I didn't know what it meant at the time, but... I felt the shift in the Force when it happened."</p>
  <p>Obi takes a breath and closes his eyes.  He's not ready to broach this subject.</p>
  <p>"The one of the Light.  They have been chosen," Maul continues.  "They are more powerful than the both us of combined.  I just don't understand why you are not training them."</p>
  <p>"That's none of your concern," Obi says.</p>
  <p>"It's why I left you.  It's why I didn't kill you that night," Maul says.  "Whoever is down the dunes, they'll put an end to all this—I've <em>seen </em>it.  They'll end Imperial rule.  They'll avenge my people."</p>
  <p>"Maul..." Obi says, feeling like he's on an emotional roller-coaster.</p>
  <p>"They will avenge <em>your </em>people.  Your Jedi.  Your people were slaughtered as well.  Did I not hear that your Jedi children were killed in cold blood, just as our Dathomiri children were?" Maul says.  His tone of voice is changing, becoming less angry, more desperate.  It's wrenching Obi apart.  "We were separated from many things on Dathomir, but we still received word from other worlds.  We still heard the news."</p>
  <p>Obi doesn't answer at first.  He looks away from those golden eyes, so piercing at that moment.  He can't escape from Maul's Force presence, though, wild and emotional.  "I can't train him," Obi says eventually.</p>
  <p>"Why?" Maul asks.</p>
  <p>"His family does not want me involved," Obi says.  "They don't want him to know of his power or to learn to wield the Force."</p>
  <p>"Then just <em>take </em>him!" Maul snarls.  "How old is this person?  He is with his family?  Can he make the decision himself to leave, or...?"</p>
  <p>"He's just a child.  A year older than Feral," Obi says.</p>
  <p>"That young?  Fuck, then he'll only get more powerful with time," Maul says.  "Go take him.  He is your son, is he not?  What right do the people he's with have to him?  How are they going to stop you from taking him?"</p>
  <p>"He's not mine.  Not my son," Obi says.  "He is... my padawan fathered children before he died.  Twins, a girl and a boy.  The girl is elsewhere—she doesn't have his power—but the boy does."</p>
  <p>Maul is quiet for a moment before he asks, "A padawan is a Jedi's apprentice, yes?"  Then, when Obi nods, Maul says, "Your padawan would want you to teach his child.  I am sure of this.  If something happened to me, I would want you to teach Feral.  It is no different."</p>
  <p>Obi laughs at the irony and absurdity.  "First of all, you wouldn't.  You wouldn't want me to train Feral," Obi says.  He's unsurprised by the offended look he gets in response, the wrinkled nose and bared teeth.  "And second, you don't understand.  So don't tell me..."</p>
  <p>"You think your padawan would not want to be avenged?" Maul interrupts, and it's enough to break Obi.</p>
  <p>He pushes himself up, grabbing onto Maul's shoulder to steady himself, and hisses, "My padawan was the Sith who brought death to the Jedi Temple.  He killed those children himself.  I watched him strangle the mother of his own children.  So tell me again what he would want.  <em>Tell me</em>."</p>
  <p>He's panting, breathing too hard, holding onto a man who lives in a whirlwind of emotion.  Maul's eyes are wide—he says, "I didn't know."</p>
  <p>And he shouldn't say it, he <em>shouldn't</em>, but Obi says, "He's still alive.  Not—not as he used to be but...  My padawan is gone, but the man remains, and if he ever finds out that his children still lived."</p>
  <p>"Bring them here," Maul says, as if it's that simple.  "If it is your purpose to protect them, then bring them here.  We can better protect them if we are all under the same roof."</p>
  <p>"I wonder some days if I still have a purpose," Obi admits, and it's like spitting up bile he's been carrying around in his belly for years.  "I once believed in a greater meaning to it all.  In fate and the pathways we're destined to walk.  But I don't know anymore.  I feel as though perhaps my purpose has been fulfilled, and my time has come to an end."</p>
  <p>Maul growls in response, mean and fierce, and he leans forward into Obi's face to do so.  His breath is warm on Obi's skin, still smells like the toothpaste he'd used before going to bed.  "If you take your own life," Maul begins, still a breath away from Obi's face.  "I will raise you from the..."</p>
  <p>Obi leans forward and presses their lips together.</p>
  <p>Maul jerks back, hand snapping up to grab Obi by the jaw.  His grip is tight, blunt claws digging into his beard.  Maul studies him, golden eyes roaming over his face, before he murmurs, "I was wrong.  You won't last a whole cycle."</p>
  <p>When he leans back in, he licks over Obi's lips, his tongue wet and velvety.  Obi moans and leans into him.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>Maul goes down on him—or at least, he does something similar, perhaps the Zabrak equivalent.  He licks and kisses at Obi's cock while stroking his shaft, kneels down between Obi's thighs and gets him wet and sloppy with saliva.  The feel of Maul's tongue and lips rubbing against sensitive flesh, against the head of his cock, it feels perfect.  </p>
  <p>Obi warns Maul when he is about to come, not really wanting to get his dick bitten off for slighting the Zabrak.  But Maul just purrs at him in that certain timbre, low and rumbly and soft, that noise Obi has only ever heard in bed.  Maul doesn't move, keeps his lips and tongue against the underside of Obi's cock, and when Obi comes, he leaves stripes of white against the black tattoos on Maul's cheek and jaw.  </p>
  <p>Obi reaches for him after, reaches to wipe his skin clean, but Maul doesn't give him the opportunity.  He shuffles up on his metal knees, straddling Obi, and wraps his hands around himself.  Both hands, one hand quickly stroking his shaft while the other squeezes the base.  Obi watches, looping his arms underneath Maul's robotic thighs and hugging him close.</p>
  <p>Maul purrs then grunts as he climaxes, squeezing and massaging his knot while putting his other hand down on Obi's chest to balance himself.  Even though Obi's already come, his belly goes hot while Maul spills himself in thick pulses, wet on Obi's skin.</p>
  <p>Just like when he'd been in rut, he comes for a long time and gets shaky once he finishes.  He rolls off and to the side, sprawling out on his back and heaving for breath.  He leaves his semen splattered on Obi's chest—more than is normal for a human man, but the sight of it puddled there leaves Obi heady and breathless.</p>
  <p>He trails his fingers through it, rubs it into his skin and chest hair, then wonders when he developed a come fetish.</p>
  <p>Then he wonders when he lost what little bit of sanity he had left.</p>
  <p>Afterward, Obi asks him, "Why do you care?"</p>
  <p>He lies sprawled against Maul's chest, his head resting on the Zabrak's shoulder and his arm flung over the Zabrak's waist. Maul is warm, his breathing even and steady. Obi can feel the rhythmic double beating of his two hearts, one contracting while the other is relaxing. </p>
  <p>The room smells like sex.  Like sweat and that odd salt scent of semen.  It's... not as unpleasant as Obi thinks it should be.</p>
  <p>"What?" Maul mumbles, voice gravelly.  He sounds sated and sleepy, and it strikes at something inside Obi, some simple animal part of him. </p>
  <p>"Why?" Obi repeats, twisting so he can look at Maul.  "Why do you care what I do?"</p>
  <p>"I want the Empire ended," Maul says, craning his neck to meet Obi's gaze.  "I want my people avenged."</p>
  <p>"No," Obi says.  "If that was all you cared about, you wouldn't be here anymore.  You would have taken Luke and you'd be gone.  I've gotten you... not figured out but—enough, I know you well enough."</p>
  <p>He expects Maul to protest, but the Zabrak doesn't.  Maul remains silent at first, then eventually says, "I hated you for what you did to my brother.  My only memories of him are of when we were young—when I was Feral's age.  I kept hoping that one day he would come home to us, and then they brought his corpse home in two pieces..."</p>
  <p>When Maul trails off, Obi says, "That explains nothing."</p>
  <p>"Mmm," Maul murmurs, looking away.  "Since I've been here, you've been someone I can rely on.  You have been kind to my boy.  And I'm... I'm appreciative."</p>
  <p>"So you're grateful I'm helping you," Obi says with a sigh.  "And I assume you appreciate the sex, too.  I'm useful enough to keep alive."</p>
  <p>"Hey!" Maul hisses, baring his teeth.  "You were the one who climbed atop me, <em>wanting</em> from me.  I gave you nothing you did not ask for."</p>
  <p>"I did not mean to say..." Obi begins, but then sighs.  He can't really argue with the Zabrak.  He did initiate the few sexual encounters they've had.  </p>
  <p>A brief silence falls after Obi trails off.  He feels Maul's fingers run up the outside of his arm, up his shoulder, oddly soft considering the situation.  Considering their arguments and the tension.  The drag of his claws makes goosepimples rise on Obi's skin.  </p>
  <p>Finally, Maul says, "I've had other premonitions."</p>
  <p>"Hmm?" Obi hums.  He doesn't particularly want to hear whatever other horrors Maul thinks are in their future, but the Zabrak seems to want to vent.</p>
  <p>"When I lost my legs I—I spent several days in a fugue state.  I saw myself with a man, a human.  I never saw his face, I only felt his presence," Maul says.  "But I remember his Force signature, and how I felt..."</p>
  <p>"If you are insinuating..." Obi interrupts, but Maul doesn't stop speaking.</p>
  <p>"I thought it was a fever dream at first, not a vision.  But the more time that passes, the more you mirror the Force signature I felt."</p>
  <p>"You're insane," Obi decides.</p>
  <p>"Perhaps," Maul says.  "But many of the things I saw have come to fruition.  Moments in time, words you have spoken to me.  I've heard you call me insane before.  I've even seen us mate before—many times, at that."</p>
  <p>"You're insane," Obi says again, for lack of anything else to say.  Maul chuckles, deep and rumbly, and Obi pushes himself up to sit, to look down at the Zabrak.  Maul meets his eye, body stretched out on top of the covers.  His skin is a tapestry, artwork of meticulous design, exotically beautiful.  He's hairless from head to toe, not even any wiry curls around his cock or on his balls.  </p>
  <p>The tattoos on his genitalia should be what catches the eye.  But then there are the robotic legs and heavy scarring around the attachments.  It hard not to look while the man is nude—it's hard not to reach out and touch.</p>
  <p>Maul shivers when Obi touches the scar tissue.  The servos in that one mechanical leg whirs, and Maul shifts in the bed, uncomfortable.  "What happened?" Obi asks.  "How did this happen?"</p>
  <p>Maul doesn't answer right away.  The feel of his Force presence is a wild array of emotion, anger and sorrow and hate and fear.  Obi waits in silence.  If what Maul says about his premonitions it true, that their futures are somehow intertwined, then Obi figures that he's owed the truth about this.  </p>
  <p>About everything, really.</p>
  <p>Finally, Maul answers, "I was caught unawares.  It won't happen again."</p>
  <p>"You said you were in a fugue state after?" Obi presses.</p>
  <p>"Yes," Maul says.  "The pain was... was excruciating.  I do not remember much, but I remember being felled.  And I remember Feral there at my side whenever I drifted from the fog."</p>
  <p>Shocked, Obi asks, "Feral saw this happen?"</p>
  <p>Maul frowns and answers, "Yes, of course.  Wherever I go, Feral goes."  Then, with a glance Obi's pillow, "Well, mostly.  This is the first time I have allowed myself pleasure since I left Dathomir—but he is safe and still sleeping.  I think it is alright."</p>
  <p>Obi nods.  Though morbid curiosity causes him to ask, "What about your—," Maul hadn't liked the word rut when Obi used it, "—cycle."</p>
  <p>"What about it?" Maul says, then grunts.  "Most places we've stayed in had only one room and one 'fresher.  This is the first time I've ever had privacy and someone else to watch over him.  Normally I just ignore the urges until I can't anymore, then shut myself in the 'fresher.  The rut smell is repulsive to him.  He stays away."</p>
  <p>Obi nods, feeling his face heat.  It's ridiculous, considering what they did less than an hour ago.  He traces the scar tissue on Maul's thigh, red and black skin blended in a gnarled metal connection.</p>
  <p>"They came in during the night, crossed my blood-ward," Maul says abruptly.  When Obi glances up, he finds Maul staring down at his robotic legs.  "The Clan Mother was with them.  <em>My </em>mother.  She crossed the wards without issue."</p>
  <p>Obi stays quiet.  He doesn't know what to say.</p>
  <p>"She grabbed Feral from beside me, and when I pursued her, she... did something to me.  I do not know what, I've never experienced the like.  The blood in my veins burned, my eyes went blind—I don't remember anything else.  My legs were lying separate from my pelvis the next time I opened my eyes."</p>
  <p>"You survived, though," Obi prompts.  "And Feral is still with you."</p>
  <p>Maul nods.  "I am still... not quite sure what happened," he answers.  "My mother and the Sisters were dead on the floor when I awoke, Feral beside me.  I believe the boy drained their life-energy to keep me alive.  It is impossible, but there is no other explanation for their deaths, nor for my continued existence."</p>
  <p>"You would have needed immediate attention from a healer," Obi agrees.  "You would have gone into shock."</p>
  <p>"I know," Maul says.  "It doesn't explain how Feral managed to do something so complicated.  It took me years of training to master such manipulation of the Force.  Many powerful Dathomiri witches never manage to do so."</p>
  <p>"I never even knew something like that was possible," Obi admits.</p>
  <p>Maul chuckles.  "There are many things they don't teach you Jedi.  But don't worry.  I'll train you in the Darker ways."</p>
  <p>"I have no interest in any of that," Obi says, scowling.</p>
  <p>"You will," Maul says, smirking.  Obi sighs and rolls his eyes.</p>
  <p>There is quiet for a moment, Obi thinking about it all.  "No wonder the boy is afraid of his own power," Obi says, more talking to himself than actually speaking to Maul.</p>
  <p>"Feral will not talk to me about what happened," Maul says.  "But his Force presence was a grey innocent before that night, and his eyes were hazel—which is what it is.  His turn to the Dark does not bother me.  I would have trained him in our people's ways eventually.  But he used to reach for the Force often, pull his toys to himself—<em>kriff</em>, I had to put Force-locks on the doors in our homes to keep him inside.  It is painful to see him no longer comfortable with something so instinctive."  </p>
  <p>"He's been through a lot.  Give him time," Obi says.  Then, with a sigh.  "It would seem we've all been through a lot."</p>
  <p>Maul is silent for a long moment before he asks, "So you understand, then?"</p>
  <p>"Pardon?" Obi says.</p>
  <p>"I have languished in hate and pain and fear for so long," Maul says.  "But in those visions I was—not happy but..."</p>
  <p>"No," Obi says, interrupting.  "Whatever it is, no."</p>
  <p>"We were safe," Maul continues, ignoring Obi's words.  "We were together with our children.  It was calm and easy.  The pain was so dull."</p>
  <p>"No," Obi repeats.</p>
  <p>"I'm tired, Jedi.  I no longer care that you are supposedly my enemy," Maul says.  "I just want what I saw... what I felt."</p>
  <p>Obi doesn't know what to say to that, so he says the first thing that comes to mind.  "You should get back to Feral, before he wakes and realizes you're gone."</p>
  <p>Maul is silent while Obi rolls off of him, and he remains quiet as he rises from the bed and gathers his clothing from the floor.  He doesn't dress before he leaves—headed to the sonic, Obi assumes.  That, or he just wants to be sure Obi looks at his ass one last time.  Obi stares at him, because he may be a Jedi but he's still human.  The way the tattoos loop down his back and cover his ass is unusually beautiful.  </p>
  <p>It suddenly occurs to Obi that Maul has probably learned to use his body as a tool, learned to use sex as a ploy.  It makes sense, considering how he 'served' the Nightsisters.  A sick feeling settles in Obi's gut at the thought, and he tells Maul, "I hope you don't think you're going to seduce me into getting what you want."</p>
  <p>Maul turns back toward him, black robes held in his arms and covering his front.  Lip curled, looking fit to murder, he snarls, "I enjoyed myself, yes, but who wouldn't?  You crawled atop me like a desperate Sister in heat."</p>
  <p>Obi feels himself blushing, but he scowls all the same.  The problem is, he can't really deny the truth of it.</p>
  <p>After a long tense silence, Maul growls, "Good night," then leaves for the 'fresher.</p>
  <p>And while the words may have been polite, the underlying sentiment was anything but.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>Obi has no logical explanation for it.  He's clearly losing his mind.</p>
  <p>He's afraid to admit it, but Maul is right.  He's becoming weak, giving in, letting his emotions control him.  Falling to Dark ways.  </p>
  <p>Two nights later finds him in bed again with the Zabrak, his lips wrapped around Maul's cock.  He has no idea how to handle the knot, and he pulls off frantically when the base starts to swell to announce, "Don't knot my mouth!"</p>
  <p>"Hush!" Maul hisses at him, before breaking off into an eerie chuckle.  Then, amused, "Don't worry, little Jedi.  We only do that to people we want dead."</p>
  <p>"That doesn't make me feel any better," Obi tells him.</p>
  <p>Maul chuckles again, rolling his eyes, but his hands are oddly gentle as he cards his fingers through Obi's hair.  His claws feel good scritching against his scalp.  They're harder and stronger than human nails but still blunt, don't leave scratches in their wake.  Obi closes his eyes, enjoying the sensation, and wraps his hand around Maul's forming knot—the same way he saw Maul do last time.</p>
  <p>Maul sighs then purrs, his legs whirring and creaking as he flexes them.  "Yes, like that," he murmurs.  "Just... squeeze and rub."</p>
  <p>He doesn't warn when he's about to come, not verbally at least, but it's blatantly obvious all the same.  Obi suddenly understands all those  crude jokes about 'popping a knot.'  Maul throws his head back on the pillow, purring low in his chest, and spills himself in Obi's mouth.  He tastes much the same as a human, bitter and salty, and Obi spits into a discarded tunic after.  </p>
  <p>Maul happily returns the favor much the same as last time, more of a licking wet handjob than a blowjob.  Obi wonders if it's because of the teeth.  In hindsight, he supposes it's best those canines stay off of his cock.</p>
  <p>"I don't mind instruction," Obi says afterward, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling.  "I don't really know what I'm doing here.  I'm not going to take offense if you..."</p>
  <p>"That last thing I am concerned about is you taking offense," Maul drawls.  "Also, it is very obvious you have no clue."</p>
  <p>"<em>Kriff</em>," Obi says, rolling his eyes.  "If you were still angry, you didn't have to come up here."</p>
  <p>"You didn't tell me to leave," Maul points out.</p>
  <p>"Okay, this is ridiculous.  We're... we're not going to do this," Obi decides.  "It doesn't matter who did what.  We had sex.  We both wanted it.  Right?"</p>
  <p>"Mmm," Maul grunts.  A long pause, and then he says, "For future reference, never mention someone shoving a knot in your mouth again.  You sounded like an idiot."</p>
  <p>"Hey!  I didn't know," Obi says, defensive.  "I've never before... with anyone who wasn't human."</p>
  <p>"As I said, that's very obvious."</p>
  <p>"Which is why, as<em> I </em>said, instruction is welcome," Obi says.  Then, mocking Maul's own words, "For future reference."</p>
  <p>"For future reference?" Maul asks, turning his head on the pillow to look at Obi.  Obi mentally kicks himself.</p>
  <p>"As you said, I didn't turn you away," Obi quips.</p>
  <p>Maul grunts, squinting back up at the ceiling.  "Indeed," he mumbles.</p>
  <p>Obi doesn't reply.  Maul rises from the bed eventually, stopping by the 'fresher then returning to his own bed.  Obi can feel him moving about the hut, can feel the moment he makes it down to the cellar and sees Feral, all that passionate hot Force energy cooling and calming.  It's endearing, there's no way around it, how the love of a child can soften a man as callous as Maul.</p>
  <p>Though Obi knows what Maul feels like in his pleasure, now.  The Zabrak opens himself up during sex—not in general, not to the entire world, but his mind is open to Obi while they're in bed.  It's easy for Obi to just fall into him, to mingle with him while they fool around, and it is...</p>
  <p>He can feel it in Maul, how invested the other man is.  Obi wouldn't say love, he can't, but it's something.  Perhaps whatever the Zabrak has seen in his visions has colored his view of the situation.  Perhaps he truly is insane.   Or perhaps he's just caught in a confusing mix of gratefulness and attraction and sexual frustration.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Regardless, feeling the emotion in the other man, it's affected Obi.  </p>
  <p>He's both fearful and hopeful that Maul is right.  About everything.</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>One more part coming that will be a sort of epilogue/follow-up.  I finished this part, but felt there was too much more to tell and already have another 1k words written, so... one more part. XD</p><p>Hope you enjoy!  Thank you so much for your comments and kudos! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
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  <p>It becomes routine.</p>
  <p>Every couple of nights, Maul makes his way up from the cellar and into Obi's bed. Obi never turns him away. To the contrary, he begins to look forward to seeing those golden eyes peer through his bedroom doorway, checking to see if he's still awake.</p>
  <p>After learning Maul was related to Darth Savage, he so readily went back to associating Maul's tattoos and horns with the deceased Sith. But it takes all of two weeks before he's looking and thinking of the way Maul's eyelids flutter when Obi traces the tattoos across his nose and cheeks. Before he's thinking of the way Maul will nuzzle him after sex, butt his forehead up against Obi's jaw and shoulder.</p>
  <p>Maul is strangely affectionate after sex, especially for a man so generally indurate. It confuses Obi at first, but then he realizes that, from a purely primal perspective, his behavior makes perfect sense. Even though they've only been giving each other handjobs and blowjobs, Maul's body probably doesn't know the difference. He's still had an orgasm, still blown his knot. As far as his lizard brain is concerned, he probably thinks he's tied with a mate.</p>
  <p>He's apparently supposed to hold and nuzzle and lick his mate's skin until they're untied. At least that is what he did the two times they were together during Maul's rut, and it's what he does now for a couple of minutes after until he seems to realizes what he's doing. Then he abruptly stops and rolls away, leaves Obi be.</p>
  <p>Obi doesn't know how to tell Maul that he wouldn't mind the continued attention. Maul's skin is soft and smooth, his body warm, the double beating of his two hearts calming.</p>
  <p>He feels like he shouldn't enjoy the affection, but he does.</p>
  <p>They usually talk afterward, either lying next to each other on their backs or, when is Obi is weak, he'll lay his head on Maul's shoulder and throw his arm across Maul's belly.  It's all about nothing in particular—idle news from the inner rims, purchases that need to be made for the home, whatever other nonsense comes to mind just to fill the quiet—nothing that Obi would consider sweet pillowtalk. </p>
  <p>Though Maul does sometimes bring up the sex, talks filthy about the things they've done, then smirks in delight at Obi's mortified reaction.  He seems to like seeing Obi flustered.</p>
  <p>Obi eventually notices Feral's suspicious glances during the day.  Not at his father, no—Maul does no wrong in his child's eyes.  But he watches Obi with something of an allegation in his gaze.  He's still as obedient and polite as ever, something Obi suspects Maul has engrained into him.  Maul's never raised a hand against the boy, at least not in Obi's presence, and he rarely shouts.  A quiet growl and a <em>Look </em>is usually all it takes to get his point across.</p>
  <p>Obi doesn't know why Feral has become so cagey with him, but he has a hunch.  Which is why he asks Maul one night—after they've sixty-nined for the first time, lying curled up comfortable on their sides, hands grasping at hips and pulling closer, <em>deeper</em>...</p>
  <p>"What have you told Feral about all this?"</p>
  <p>Maul laughs.  "Are you serious?"</p>
  <p>"Yes," Obi says, turning his head on the pillow to look over at where Maul is lying next to him.  "Are you saying you haven't told him anything?"</p>
  <p>"Of course not," Maul answers, looking back at Obi as though he thinks Obi is has lost his mind.  "The boy is only four..."</p>
  <p>"You said he was five the other week," Obi says.  "I thought I missed his birthday."</p>
  <p>"<em>A</em><em>lmost </em>five, but," Maul huffs a sigh.  "He does not need to know about these things. Not about mating."</p>
  <p>It's Obi's turn to laugh.  "Do you truly believe he doesn't <em>already </em>know?  You let him use your holo-pad and access the holo-net.  He knows something already."</p>
  <p>"I know what he does and where he goes.  I do not let him view pornography," Maul snaps, pausing to growl.  "I find him books at his reading level and games he'll like.  He has free access to educational sources.  That is it."</p>
  <p>"Reproduction and sexual behavior fall under education," Obi points out.  "He's very capricious for his age. Very curious.  And he reads well above a four-year-old's level.  He would be able to understand the basics of a youth's educational text."</p>
  <p>Maul is quiet for a long time before he mumbles, "Fuck."</p>
  <p>Obi chuckles, says.  "Yes."</p>
  <p>"It is an odd thing, raising a child," Maul murmurs.  "I look and logically, in my mind, I see him growing and becoming his own person.  He's being forced to mature far too quickly for a little boy—but in my hearts I feel him and he is still just a baby.  That same infant I held in my arms as I took off from Dathomir."</p>
  <p>Obi nods, watching Maul with an ache in his chest.  "I understand that."</p>
  <p>Maul just sighs and closes his eyes.</p>
  <p>"You said he's seen you while you're in rut?" Obi asks.  "He's probably looked into the symptoms."</p>
  <p>"I've never been inappropriate in front of him.  So I just assumed..."  Maul sighs again.  "He can smell the pheromones though.  It's why he doesn't like to come near me during."</p>
  <p>"You mentioned that," Obi says.  "You were feverish, too.  And quite aggressive."</p>
  <p>Maul snorts.  "It's more territorial than aggressive, I promise.  There is a deep need to not only mate and tie but to... affirm what is mine."</p>
  <p>Obi waves this off.  It's not important to the current discussion.  "But he knows you act differently, and you smell differently to him, and you run a fever.  That's enough to start looking on the holo-net."</p>
  <p>"I just tell him I'm sick," Maul says.</p>
  <p>"Your six-month sickness?" Obi asks.</p>
  <p>Maul frowns.  "I've never called it that."</p>
  <p>"It's what he told me was wrong with you when you cycled," Obi tells him.  "Your 'six-month sickness.'"</p>
  <p>Maul huffs and drags a hand over his face.  "That's a euphemism for it with somewhat of a... derogatory connotation."</p>
  <p>Obi laughs, can't help it.  Maul growls in reply, but it's not really threatening.  Obi says, "There's your answer.  He knows <em>something</em>."</p>
  <p>"I'll talk to him," Maul says, then sighs.  "I have no idea what I'm doing..."</p>
  <p>"I believe I already mentioned that children don't come with a user manual," Obi quips.</p>
  <p>Maul just grunts in reply.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>"Feral thought you were trying to steal me from him," Maul says three nights later.</p>
  <p>Obi laughs, craning his neck to look up from where he's resting his head on Maul's shoulder.  "Possessive, is he?" Obi asks.</p>
  <p>"Hey," Maul scolds, though it holds no real heat.  He chuckles, a deep rumbly sound, then says, "I am all he's had in his entire life.  <em>He </em>is all <em>I </em>have had these past few years.  I don't blame him for his fear.  I am just surprised I did not feel it on him."</p>
  <p>"His anxiety permeates, at least to me," Obi comments.</p>
  <p>"I am better attuned to him usually," Maul says, frowning.  "He is getting better at shielding his emotions."</p>
  <p>"His control of the Force is growing stronger.  That's a good thing," Obi says.</p>
  <p>Maul growls, irritated, then says, "I don't want him shielding himself from me."</p>
  <p>Obi doesn't really have a reply to that.  He sighs, asks, "I assume you talked to him?"</p>
  <p>"Mmhm," Maul murmurs.  "He was confused about most of it.  You were right, he understood the gist, but more than that..."</p>
  <p>"I told you," Obi says, patting Maul's belly.  "Educational sources."</p>
  <p>"He looked me in the eye and asked me if I was mating with you," Maul says, then laughs.  Obi snorts.  "I was not prepared for that.  I doubt anything <em>could </em>have prepared me for that."</p>
  <p>Obi nods, smirking, then asks, "So what did you tell him?"</p>
  <p>"I was not explicit," Maul says.  "He is still young.  He won't start having ruts for another ten cycles.  <em>At least. </em> He doesn't need to know."</p>
  <p>"No, I mean, what did you tell him about us?"</p>
  <p>Maul is quiet for a long moment, then he says, "I told him that you are a loyal friend."</p>
  <p>Obi frowns.  "So you told him we weren't mati—having sex?"</p>
  <p>"I did not lie to him," Maul says.</p>
  <p>"So, what, you don't think what we're doing is having sex?" Obi says, scoffing.</p>
  <p>"I never said that," Maul snaps, scowling.  "Of course it is.  But it is complicated.  Too complicated to explain to a child."</p>
  <p>"So what did you tell him?" Obi presses.</p>
  <p>"Why is this so important to you?"</p>
  <p>"Because I...  I don't know," Obi says.  <em>Will you explain this to me like</em> I'm <em>a child?</em></p>
  <p>"When he questioned me about it, I told him there are certain parts of my life that, as a child, he doesn't need to know about.  He was not happy about that answer, but... he knows not to argue with me," Maul says, shrugging.  "And of course, I assured him that no one could take me from him, nor him from me."</p>
  <p>"That's good," Obi allows.  Then, after a tense silence, "Too complicated..."</p>
  <p>"I've told you where I stand."</p>
  <p>"Have you?"</p>
  <p>Maul sighs, long and put-upon, as though Obi is the biggest headache of his life.  "I want what I felt in my visions," he says.  "If this is the closest I get, then... it won't be alright, but it will be something."</p>
  <p>Obi closes his eyes.  "Maul."</p>
  <p>"Our mating is good," Maul says.  Obi can feel himself blushing, but the tone of Maul's voice isn't goading.  He's just talking.  "I did not know how a human would truly be in these ways, but it is as I saw in my visions.  Not so complicated.  We're quite compatible."</p>
  <p>"Compatible," Obi parrots, laughing.</p>
  <p>"What, do you not think so?" Maul asks, the frown audible in his voice.</p>
  <p>"A Jedi and a Nightbrother?" Obi asks, a redundant question.</p>
  <p>"I meant anatomically," Maul says with a very long sigh.  "I give you pleasure much the same as I would another man of my own kind.  You've already taken my knot, and you do not have one, so I doubt it would be a hardship to take you."</p>
  <p>"Oh," Obi says, brain short-circuiting at the casual way Maul discusses all this.  At the implication that Maul would let Obi... <em>fuck</em> him.</p>
  <p>"Anyway," Maul says.  He stretches, groaning quietly as his muscles shift and pull.  "You need to make up your mind whether you are or are <em>not </em>a Jedi.  Your stance on the matter seems to change daily."</p>
  <p>"I know," Obi allows.  He trails his forefinger down the tattooed lines on Maul's chest, a distraction.  The swirling pattern over his sternum is oddly similar to an upside down heart, the two loops not quite closed at the middle.  Obi wonders if it's symbolic of something—inverting an emblem of love to represent hate.</p>
  <p>Except love and hate are too akin to each other.  The true inversion of love is emptiness. </p>
  <p>And Maul is anything but emotionally empty.</p>
  <p>"You've been with other men?" Obi asks, curious.  "Other Zabrak men, at least...?"</p>
  <p>"Mmm," Maul grunts.  "Some of the Sisters enjoyed being with two Brothers at a time, or just watching two Brothers together.  The opportunity was usually provided by the Clan Mother as a reward for battle prowess or exceptional service, some such..."</p>
  <p>And it clicks so suddenly in Obi's mind, he finds himself flopping over on his belly so he can look up and meet Maul's gaze.  Maul looks startled at the sudden movement, and even more startled when Obi blurts out, "The Clan Mother, didn't you say... she was your mother?  Were you being figurative, or...?"</p>
  <p>"No, she was my birth mother," Maul says, already cringing as if he knows where Obi is taking this.</p>
  <p>"So your own mother..."  Obi doesn't really know how to word it.  Offered up her own son's body as a prize?  Used her own son as breeding stock?  Was willing to kill her own son over his lack of cooperation?</p>
  <p>"Yes," Maul says.  "Whatever you are thinking, the answer is probably yes."</p>
  <p>Obi's quiet, not knowing what to say.  He lets his hand trail down Maul's chest, smoothing along all that soft hairless skin.</p>
  <p>"It was the way I was raised.  I thought it was normal," Maul says, talking in that way he does sometimes, rambling, eyes staring blindly up at the ceiling.  It becomes wholly  apparent at times like these that he's never had anyone to talk to, not about all of this, probably hasn't even had the time to cope.  He left in the midst of a genocide with a baby in his arms and a small militia of Nightsisters after his head—not a lot of time for self-reflection.  "I never even realized that what went on might be considered... inappropriate to other peoples until I left with Feral.  Until after I saw how others lived their lives.  What I considered as serving faithfully was the definition of slavery on many other planets."</p>
  <p>"You would have been considered a slave on Coruscant," Obi replies.  "And slavery has been outlawed in the inner rims for centuries."</p>
  <p>"I know," Maul says.  "It is also why Savage was sent away to train under Sidious.  My mother was hoping for an alliance with the Sith, but of course Savage was killed and then we were betrayed.  I only found this out years later, but still... the decision that ruined him was made for him by his own mother.  He had no say in the matter."</p>
  <p>"I'm sorry," Obi finds himself saying.  "For all of it."</p>
  <p>Maul turns his head and watches him for a long moment, those golden eyes seeming to look right through him.  It makes Obi shiver, and his eyes go half-lidded when Maul leans over, bumping his nose against Obi's temple then his cheek.</p>
  <p>It's only a tiny thing to tilt his head and meet Maul's lips in a kiss.</p>
  <p>It's weird.  Obi tries for gentle and chaste, while Maul goes straight in tongue first.  They end up mashed awkwardly together, lip to tongue, and Obi pulls back blinking.  Maul's brows are raised when he meets Obi's eyes.</p>
  <p>"Do you not know how to kiss?" Obi asks, then laughs. </p>
  <p>"I've kissed you before," Maul says with a snarl.</p>
  <p>"No you haven't.  <em>I've </em>kissed <em>you</em>, but not..."  Obi trails off at Maul's absolutely bewildered look.  "Perhaps our two peoples kiss differently?" he realizes aloud.</p>
  <p>"Perhaps," Maul says.  He leans back in, nuzzling at Obi's cheek again, and then says, "Try again, I'll allow you to do as you will."</p>
  <p>"Oh, how kind of you," Obi quips, smirking, before he ducks his head again and finds Maul's lips.  They're soft against Obi's even though Maul clearly doesn't know what to do, just stays relaxed and lets Obi gently slot their mouths together.  Maul huffs a breath after a moment, then apparently can't help but nuzzle into Obi's  face.  Obi smiles against Maul's lips.</p>
  <p>Maul seems contemplative when they pull apart.  His Force signature is fluttering with emotion, though not as raging or anxious as usual.  It's all passion, and Obi could just soak in it.  Eventually, Maul decides, "I liked that."</p>
  <p>Obi snorts in amusement.  "Alright, I showed you mine, now you show me yours."</p>
  <p>"I already have, but alright," Maul says, rolling his eyes, before reaching out to grasp Obi by the back of his neck.  He pulls him in close, and then laves a slow lick against his lips, his tongue soft and velvety. </p>
  <p>"Oh, you have done that before," Obi realizes when Maul pulls away.  It should be disgusting, a ridiculous action outside of sex, but Obi's clearly lost his mind.  He licks his own lips after, smiling.</p>
  <p>"Mmm," Maul hums.  "I like how your face hair feels against my tongue.  None of our people have hair around their mouths."</p>
  <p>Obi chuckles, asks, "You mean my beard?"</p>
  <p>"Yes," Maul says.  He grins—a new sight to Obi, and so very sweet.  "That is still a new word to me.  I forget it."</p>
  <p>"Well, I like how smooth you are.  <em>Everywhere</em>," Obi says, letting his hand drift down Maul's body, and down, and down... </p>
  <p>Maul isn't shy about his body, doesn't cover himself up with the blankets after sex, so his cock is right there to touch.  Obi's seen and touched him while erect plenty, but at the moment he's still soft after his orgasm.  He's big, thick and weighty, still a bit wet at the tip under his foreskin.  That ridge of cartilage along the underside is softer, more malleable while he's flaccid.  It's oddly soothing to rub his thumb back and forth, up and down against the textured skin.</p>
  <p>There's an odd empty feeling in the shaft at the very base.  Obi squeezes at it a bit, curious, before he realizes it's the space where the knot swells.  He face goes hot, and he turns his head up to look at Maul without really thinking about it. </p>
  <p>Maul is watching him with his eyes half-lidded.  "The Zabrak's recovery time doesn't seem to be the same as humans'.  I know you're able to mate again in less than an hour," he speaks up. </p>
  <p>"No, I wasn't trying to—I was just curious," Obi says, blushing. </p>
  <p>"What you are doing feels good, but I won't be able to get an erection again for at least..."</p>
  <p>"We are, what did you say... compatible, yes," Obi interrupts.  "But you're still different."</p>
  <p>"Mmm, fair," Maul allows.  His eyes are soft and almost fond—Obi both hates and loves it.  "I can still pleasure you with my mouth," he murmurs, "even if I'm not erect."</p>
  <p>Obi closes his eyes, heart beating an odd staccato, and shakes his head no.  "It's alright," he says.  "Just relax.  When you're ready, you can go back to your bed."</p>
  <p>Obi's taken aback when Maul's Force signature flares with unhappiness.  But then Obi doesn't really want him to go either, not deep down, not in the pit of his stomach.  He still breathes a sigh of relief once Maul leaves.</p>
  <p>Obi loves the way he feels with the Zabrak, and he hates himself for loving.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>The problem is... Maul was right when he said they are compatible.  The sex is amazing, leaves Obi somehow both deeply satisfied and wanting more.  </p>
  <p>Or not necessarily more.  Yes, he's curious about what is would be like to let Maul knot and tie him again, curious if it would be different now that Maul is not in rut.  And of course he wonders what it would feel like to fuck into Maul, if it would be as good as it was with...</p>
  <p>Obi tries not to compare, but he's inexperienced, moreso than even Maul knows.  There was Qui Jon, and now there is Maul, and that is all.  It is difficult not to liken the two different people, his only two different experiences. </p>
  <p>He hates himself when he inevitably does so. </p>
</div><div>
  <p>There was a significant age difference between him and Qui Jon, of course.  He can look back and see that the old Jedi enjoyed that, enjoyed Obi's inexperience, enjoyed his role as mentor both outside and inside the bedroom.  Obi is now able to look back with an unclouded view, more mature in his years, and see that the roles of Master and Apprentice were as defined in their romantic relationship as in their professional.  He doesn't know what it says about him that he'd enjoyed that back then—or perhaps he simply doesn't want to acknowledge the implications—but he wouldn't be who he is today without Qui Jon...</p>
  <p>All people who touch your life shape you in some way. </p>
  <p>Like Maul has already shaped him.</p>
  <p>Maul is his own age, or at least close to it.  Obi can't say he knows exactly how old the Zabrak is, but Maul has said he was a young man during the Clone Wars.  Maul has crow's feet around his eyes, frown lines framing his lips, just like Obi himself, and backaches and pain from past injuries, just like Obi himself.  He can't be significantly younger or significantly older.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>He also doesn't enjoy Obi's inexperience.  He is tolerant of it, doesn't seem to mind telling Obi what he likes and how he likes it, but he doesn't miss a chance to pick fun at Obi over it.  He seems to love making Obi blush and squirm and stutter in discomfit as much as Qui Jon had loved offering praise and encouragement.</p>
  <p>Maul is not gentle with him either, not the way Qui Jon was.  Maul does not treat him like some precious beloved thing, at least not <em>during </em>the sex.  He may be soft and affectionate afterward—he may allow himself a few moments of cuddling before he denies himself his instinctive wants and needs.  But while they're fooling around, he pushes and shoves, holds Obi down, bites and butts his horns against him.  He knows Obi's power, and he knows Obi is strong.  It's as though he somehow knows how far he can go without pushing Obi past arousal into hurt or fear. </p>
  <p>But then they are usually connected through the Force during.  Of course Maul knows.  He can feel the shifts in Obi's emotions, just as Obi can feel Maul's. </p>
  <p>Obi hates himself for thinking it, but when Maul looms over him, starts nosing at his cheek and whispering absolute <em>filth</em>, all the things he wants to do to Obi, how he remembers the way Obi felt around his knot, how he'd just <em>keep </em>Obi there if he had his way... then starts grinning and leering at how flustered and turned on Obi is...</p>
  <p>The sex is better with Maul.</p>
  <p>Obi's yet to reach with the Force to pleasure Maul.  Connected at they always are, it would be but a small thing to find the pleasure centers of his brain and further stimulate them.  Maul's body is very similar to that of a human's. Obi doubts navigating his cerebral anatomy would be too difficult.  He could probably give Maul multiple orgasms in that manner, even if Zabrak males are not generally capable of having them. </p>
  <p>But then actually touching someone's mind is an incredibly intimate act.  Obi is afraid to do so for a myriad of reasons, not least of which is fear over his own attachment.  He'd never done so with Qui Jon, even though he'd thought he loved the man.  Thought he'd been <em>in </em>love with the man.  And perhaps he had been.  Though he'd not reacted to the man's death in the same way that Anakin had reacted to the mere <em>vision </em>of Padme's.</p>
  <p>Obi doesn't know what to think.</p>
  <p>He wonders if he's in love with Maul.  He wonders if <em>Maul </em>is in love with <em>him</em>.</p>
  <p>Territorial, Maul had said.  Obi hadn't thought much of it at the time.  They'd been discussing Feral at the time.  But the conversation has come back to him in the early hours of the morning many a time, has stuck in his mind as these things tend to do. </p>
  <p><em>It's more territorial than aggressive, I promise,</em> Maul had said.  <em>There is a deep need to not only mate and tie but to... affirm what is mine.</em></p>
  <p>
    <em>Affirm what is mine...</em>
  </p>
  <p>Is that how Maul thinks of him?  As <em>his?</em>  And if so, his <em>what? <br/>
</em></p>
  <p>Obi's suspicion is unsettling.</p>
  <p>The only Zabraks Obi ever really knew, not including Maul, were Eeth Koth and Agen Kolar.  They were Iridionian, of course, but their similarities to the Dathomiri are clear.  The Iridonians have a certain primal quality to them—instinctive cues, scent communication, an emotional intuition that borders on a sixth sense.  Maul has all of this, if not even moreso.  He's almost more keen, more sensitive to the unseen and unheard than Koth.  And Koth had been scarily attuned.</p>
  <p>Obi's heard that many Iridonians <em>know </em>when they've met their spouse, some mix of instinct and intuition.  Koth had explained it as knowing when someone will be a compatible life companion, but Obi supposes that it's mostly the same thing.  He wonders if the Dathomiri experience the same thing.</p>
  <p>It would also explain the way Maul looks at him sometimes.  Like he is the sun and the moon and the stars all wrapped up in one.</p>
  <p>Obi doesn't want to think about the way he probably looks at Maul.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>"There is going to come a day when we must leave here," Maul says to him eventually.  "What remains of my Clan will eventually find us.  We've already lingered too long."</p>
  <p>"There is no 'we.'  You'll be leaving alone," Obi tells him, propped up on pillows in the bed.  He stares down at his holo-pad, refusing to look at where Maul is standing at the foot of his bed and watching him.  He hates the despair beginning to settle in the pit of his stomach. </p>
  <p>"I meant myself and Feral," Maul tells him, taking the step forward and crawling onto the bed.  Obi doesn't look up, but he can see the Zabrak in his peripheral, golden eyes peering at him. </p>
  <p>A strange silence settles.  Obi is fairly sure Maul's waiting for him to reply, or at least to give him something further.  But Obi has nothing more to say on the matter.  Maul should already know where he stands. </p>
  <p>It's not that he wants to be rid of Maul.  It's that he can't leave Luke.</p>
  <p>"I do not <em>want </em>to leave here without you," Maul says.  His tone of voice is strangely gentle, eerily similar to the way he speaks to Feral.  Not any way he's ever spoken to Obi before.</p>
  <p>"Don't speak to me that way," Obi says. </p>
  <p>"What way?" Maul asks.  He obeys Obi's order, at least, mood making an abrupt swing toward irritated.  Obi wishes it made him feel better.</p>
  <p>"You know what way," he answers.</p>
  <p>"As though I enjoy you?" Maul asks, scowling.  His Force presence is alight, fiery and passionate and angry.</p>
  <p>Obi sighs.  "I only..."</p>
  <p>"When you first told me of your Jedi rules regarding this, I thought you and your Order were so very foolish.  I've mated with many women over the years and never felt an emotional connection to any of them," Maul says.  "Though perhaps there is something to what your people say after all.  A few months here, only a handful of couplings, and I already wish to crawl beneath your skin... devour you and keep you."</p>
  <p>"That is not disturbing at all..." Obi drawls, sarcastic.  Even though when his heartrate kicks up a notch, it's not out of fear.</p>
  <p>"It will be difficult to leave you, yes," Maul admits, not acknowledging Obi's quip.  "But I do not intend to treat you as a Sister treats their mate.  I'll not treat you like my property and force you to come with me.  I'll not expect blind obedience."</p>
  <p>"It's funny that you think you could force me," Obi comments.</p>
  <p>Maul raises his brows.  "It's funny you think I cannot."</p>
  <p>Obi sighs, looking away from Maul's gaze to stare up at the ceiling.  Then, the question he's not sure he wants the answer to, "Is that what you consider me?  A mate?  <em>Your </em>mate?"</p>
  <p>Maul grunts in reply but doesn't verbally answer.  Obi's stomach sinks.</p>
  <p>"You just answered me by not answering," Obi points out.</p>
  <p>"Really?" Maul snaps, then laughs, quiet and mean.  He leans in, breath warm against Obi's face as he hisses, "Then will you enlighten me?  Because I myself do not know the answer."</p>
  <p>"What in the galaxy does <em>that </em>mean?" Obi asks, shoving Maul away and rolling his eyes.</p>
  <p>Maul shakes his head.  "I've never had a mate.  A Nightbrother does not choose his mate, he is chosen by a Sister.  If he's lucky, he will come to care for her and bond with her.  If not, then, then she will hopefully be kind to him..."</p>
  <p>"So I'd have to... <em>choose </em>you," Obi guesses.  <em><br/>
</em></p>
  <p>"Mmm," Maul hums, noncommittal.</p>
  <p><em>Kriff</em>, their culture is strange.  Is there a word for the opposite of misogyny? </p>
  <p>"I'm not a Nightsister," Obi reasons.  "Why would <em>I </em>have to make that choice?  Why couldn't you?"</p>
  <p>Maul is quiet for a very long moment, eyes focused on the off-white wall, brows furrowed.  Finally, he answers, "Because I refuse to make that choice for you."</p>
  <p>Obi sighs.  "I know that you were..."</p>
  <p>"It doesn't matter," Maul interrupts."You cannot lie to me.  I know you sense this, too.  What we have between us, the power and potential of it.  I can <em>feel </em>the emotion in you."</p>
  <p>"I feel nothing for you," Obi lies. </p>
  <p>Maul smiles at him, toothy and sad.  "Which is why I will not choose you.  Not while you resist."</p>
  <p>Obi huffs at him, angry, but he doesn't pull away when Maul leans back into him, licking at his lips and then into his mouth when Obi opens up for him. </p>
  <p>And he doesn't push Maul away when the Zabrak slinks down his body, pushing his clothes aside and nipping at his skin.  Obi closes his eyes and settles his hands on Maul's skull, scratching at Maul's scalp all around and between his horns, while Maul licks at his cock in that languid and lazy way that's becoming wonderfully familiar. </p>
  <p>Maul loves having his head rubbed and massaged and scratched on, loves having his horns played with and tugged on.  Obi tries not to analyze why he himself loves doing it for Maul so much—why the satisfied pleased noises Maul purrs against Obi's dick are just as good as Maul's hands and lips and mouth...</p>
  <p>He just enjoys it all, enjoys the moment, because Maul is right.  The man is going to be leaving soon enough, so he should savor the moment while it lasts.</p>
  <p>He should savor everything, he thinks, is all he thinks when he rolls over onto his belly and tells Maul, "You can—you can fuck me."</p>
  <p>"Mmm," Maul hums.  His hands pet down Obi's sides until they're cupping his ass, and then he squeezes the cheeks, spreads them with a pleased little purr.  "Don't offer what you do not truly wish to give."</p>
  <p>"I'm not," Obi tells him.  "I want this."</p>
  <p>Maul chuckles, then murmurs, "Oh, how far you've fallen, little Jedi. I will miss you so much."</p>
  <p>Obi closes his eyes and resolutely does <em>not </em>think about being alone once again after Maul has left. </p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>He's still sore the morning that Maul packs up to leave. </p>
  <p>Feral cries, tells Maul that he doesn't want to go, begs Maul to stay.  Maul snarls and growls at him, effectively silencing his complaints, but it doesn't stop the boy's tears.</p>
  <p>As he hugs Obi around the hip—as high as he's able to reach—he quietly asks, "Could you come with us?"</p>
  <p>It's a rephrasing of what Maul had said while they were lying together in the afterglow, Maul's knot still deep and snug and <em>so good</em> inside him.  "You can still come with us," he'd murmured into the back of Obi's neck, unabashedly nuzzling and mouthing at his skin.  "The invitation will remain open until the moment we leave the planet."</p>
  <p>"I can't leave Luke," Obi had said, staring straight ahead at the wall.  "The boy... I can't leave him."</p>
  <p>"Bring him," Maul had purred.  "I will go and take him <em>for </em>you, silence his family.  Your Jedi hands can stay clean in the matter..."</p>
  <p>At the time, Obi had stayed silent, afraid of his own desire and weakness.  And now, with Feral hanging off of his hip and Maul standing at the door with his travel bag slung over his shoulder, he's paralyzed by want and fear.  His heart is aching.</p>
  <p>He can't let this man leave, he knows that on some visceral level.  He's not sure if he believes Maul about his visions, if he believes that their fates are entwined somehow—but the feeling in his gut, the pull he feels...</p>
  <p>
    <em>The Force will guide you.</em>
  </p>
  <p>"Did you mean it?" Obi asks, quiet.</p>
  <p>"Mean what?" Maul asks, sounding tired and exasperated and at his wit's end. </p>
  <p>Obi thinks he may be sick.  "Did you mean that you would take him," he asks.  "That you would go and... take care of things?"</p>
  <p>"Of course," Maul says, expression and tone both softening.  Then, "You are not ready yet.  I can take care of our darker deeds until you are."</p>
  <p>Obi frowns and shakes his head, pretending to not understand even though he does.  He <em>does</em>.  </p>
  <p>"Stay with Feral," Maul says, putting his travel bag down.  He checks his saber, already hidden inside his robes, then pulls his hood low, flexes his fingers inside his gloves.  "I'll be back soon."</p>
  <p>"Don't harm them.  His family—they're innocent in this matter," Obi says.  It comes out as more of a plea.</p>
  <p>Maul glances back once before he lets himself out.  He looks unimpressed.  "I'll do what I must," he says, simple and to the point.</p>
  <p>Then, to Feral, "Behave.  Listen to Obi-Wan."</p>
  <p>And with that, he's gone.</p>
  <p>"What?  Where is he going?" Feral asks, confused.  He looks up at Obi with anxious eyes, still hanging onto the edge of his robes. </p>
  <p>"He's—he's doing something to help me before we leave."</p>
  <p>"Does this mean... are you coming with us?" Feral asks, anxiety suddenly turning to happiness and hope.</p>
  <p><em>He already views me as family</em>, Obi thinks, can't believe he's only realizing it now.  "I think, yes, I'll be joining you both.  As long as your Papa is able to get the boy..."</p>
  <p>"What boy?" Feral asks.  Then, before Obi can answer, "The other Force-user?"</p>
  <p><em>Kriff.  </em>"Yes.  Him."</p>
  <p>"He won't get hurt, right?" Feral asks, worried.  "Papa won't get hurt?"</p>
  <p>Obi shakes his head no.  "Your Papa is not the one in danger."</p>
  <p>Feral frowns, not understanding.  Obi sighs.  He shouldn't be airing his worries and grievances to this child.  Feral is so precocious and quick, it's easy to forget he's not even five-years-old.</p>
  <p>"Do you have all of your things packed away?  Why don't you do one last check?" Obi suggests, motioning idly at the inside of the hut.  "Maybe try to use the 'fresher one last time before we leave for town?"</p>
  <p>Feral's frown deepens, but he nods all the same, wandering back down into the cellar.  Obi takes a breath, rubbing his hands over his face.  He needs to gather his things.  Pack his clothes, his few valuables, his saber...</p>
  <p>Anakin's saber.</p>
  <p>He feels sick.  He's felt sick since the moment Maul left the hut. </p>
  <p>What has he done?</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>Obi is finishing loading up the cargo speeder when Maul returns.</p>
  <p>The Zabrak has Luke propped up on his hip, the boy's arms slung around his neck and face buried in his shoulder.  Feral, standing by Obi's hip, perks up at the sight.  "Papa?" he calls.</p>
  <p>"I found you a friend," Maul replies, dry as dust, as he deposits Luke into the back of the speeder.  The little boy is crying, his blue eyes rid-rimmed, and when he looks over at Obi, it's with shock and fear.</p>
  <p>Obi doesn't even think.  He reaches out with the Force, grabs hold of Maul's body and yanks him closer, close enough to fist his hand in that black cloak.  "What did you do to him?" Obi shouts.</p>
  <p>Maul bares his teeth and leans in to snarl, "Do you really think I would harm the one true hope we all have?"</p>
  <p>"Then why is he crying?"</p>
  <p>"Because he is a child, and I just took him away from his family," Maul snaps.  "Do you know <em>nothing</em>?"</p>
  <p>"Shh, just... calm down," Obi says, gesturing to where Luke is staring up at Maul with wide eyes.</p>
  <p>"You're the one taking issue," Maul counters.</p>
  <p>Obi sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose, and watches as Maul helps Feral into the back of the speeder alongside Luke.  "Okay," Obi says.  "Okay, so, we're going..."</p>
  <p>"Yes," Maul says, piling into the driver's seat.  Obi thinks maybe he should protest this—it's <em>his </em>speeder after all—but he doesn't.  He just climbs in alongside Maul and settles in while Maul starts up the engine. </p>
  <p>They set off along the dunes, sand kicking up in their wake.  Obi's stomach is a mess of nerves, nausea set in to stay.  He gathers his wits enough to ask, "What of his family?  Are they alright?"</p>
  <p>"Everyone is fine," Maul says.  "We can discuss this later, away from the children."</p>
  <p>Obi's stomach sinks, and he grabs at Maul's arm.  "You killed them?" he hisses.  "I told you not to harm them.  They were innocent!"</p>
  <p>"I just said they were fine!" Mauls snarls.  "Do you not listen?"</p>
  <p>"I—," Obi says, sucking in a deep breath and trying to find his center.  He can feel himself coming unraveled, flying apart, losing himself.  He glances back to the kids, where they're sitting in midst of the the boxes and bags of belongings. </p>
  <p>Feral is speaking to Luke, though it's too quiet for Obi to hear over the rumble of of the speeder's engine.  They seem to be fine, though.  If anything, Luke seems to be doing better than before.  His head is dipped close to Feral's so he can better listen to the boy, and he's wiping at his tear-stained cheeks.  While Obi watches, a watery grin breaks out on his face while Feral giggles.</p>
  <p>"Are they alright?" Maul asks, snapping Obi's attention back to him. </p>
  <p>"Yes, they're fine.  Good," Obi answers.  Then, apropos of nothing, just because he's watching it, has been watching it for months... "He's a good boy—Feral.  I know you say you don't know what you're doing, and maybe it's not the best situation, but...  You're doing good."</p>
  <p>Maul cuts his eyes around, gold shining out from beneath his billowing hood.  He says nothing at first, just reaches over and finds Obi's hand, laces their fingers together and brings their linked hands up to his face.  He lays the back of Obi's hand against his cheek, rubs his face against the skin and nuzzles into him. </p>
  <p>And even though Obi can't hear it over the sound of the engine, he knows the man well enough to know that he's purring at him. </p>
  <p>Obi doesn't know what to say.  He's still sick with fear and nerves and doubt, but the show of affection is somehow just what he needs.  Tears threaten to fall.  He feels as though he's going to fly apart.  He feels as though he's going to fall.</p>
  <p>Luckily, he's saved from having to speak by Maul saying, "You've done the right thing, Jedi.  Do not be afraid."</p>
  <p>"I don't know," Obi admits, quiet.  Then, inanely, "Just, don't give up on me."</p>
  <p>"I am a loyal creature," Maul says.  "The only living being who will come before you is Feral.  I swear it."</p>
  <p>Obi laughs, can't help it, and squeezes Maul's hand where it's still held in the space between their bodies, next to Maul's hip.  "I wouldn't expect anything less," Obi says.</p>
  <p>Maul shoots him a crooked grin in reply and drives the rest of the way into Mos Eisley in silence.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>Obi begins wondering as they enter the outskirts of town how exactly they're going to get off-planet, but when he asks, Maul rolls his eyes and informs him he has a ship. </p>
  <p>"How do you think I got here?" Maul asks, scowling.</p>
  <p>"I don't know.  Paid for safe passage?" Obi says.  He gets a scowl and a huff for that one, and they slowly make their way in the speeder through the streets and to the landing pads.</p>
  <p>Turns out Maul does have a ship—and a nice one at that, a big star courier that he declares is the <em>Scimitar</em>.  "Stolen from the Sisters when I left Dathomir," he says.  "So I guess technically I stole two things from them.  A child and a ship."</p>
  <p>"You stole the ship," Obi says.  "I don't agree that you stole the child."</p>
  <p>Maul doesn't reply, but Obi thinks he sees the man's expression soften, definitely feels the quick flurry of passion and emotion in him.  "Come," Maul says, "Let's get everything loaded up.  Get the children settled."</p>
  <p>Obi nods, and picks up Luke while Maul hefts Feral up onto his hip. </p>
  <p>It turns out the ship isn't flight ready.  Unsurprising, Obi thinks, considering Maul hasn't been getting any regular maintenance done on her.  The ship has been sitting on the landing pad for over a year just collecting sand and dust.</p>
  <p>"Idiot," Obi hisses at him.  "What if you'd needed to leave in a hurry?"</p>
  <p>Maul bares his teeth, cranky, and snaps, "Well, we have some time.  It all worked out."</p>
  <p>They get settled in on the ship while the maintenance droids get to work.  There is a lot of room inside—four seats in the cockpit, eight bunks, a full-sized 'fresher, a conservator and sanitizer...  Plus, a huge cargo hangar.</p>
  <p>"Did you pick the biggest ship you could find?" Obi asks, genuinely amused.</p>
  <p>"I picked the one that was closest," Maul says, smirking.  "I just got lucky."</p>
  <p>"Indeed," Obi says.</p>
  <p>He finds himself—not relaxing, not exactly, but perhaps beginning to settle.  The evening hours creep up on them, and Obi leaves momentarily to go purchase some food for the flight.  He picks up a hot meal while he's out, the kabobs he knows Maul likes, and brings it all back with a growing sense of peace settling in his chest.</p>
  <p>Maul is waiting for him in the ready room with the two boys, Luke and Feral playing with one of Feral's toys while Maul watches them from his seat at the durasteel table, protective and possessive.  And it's a sudden startling realization that he <em>trusts </em>Maul—trusts him to watch Luke while he's away, trusts him to watch over Obi <em>himself</em>, to be careful with Obi's heart and mind and soul...</p>
  <p>He almost drops their food on the metallic floor of the ship.</p>
  <p>Maul seems to feel his inner turmoil, and he glances over at Obi from his seat.  His golden eyes are somehow both sharp and soft as he asks, "Are you alright?"</p>
  <p>"I don't know," Obi admits, while Maul stands and comes over to help him with the food. </p>
  <p>Maul doesn't comment, not then, just unpacks the kabobs with a happy grin.  They get the boys set up first, get their food out and get them eating, before Obi sits down next to Maul with his own dinner.  He sighs, looking down at the food, not sure he can eat.  He's both hungry and nauseous at the same time.</p>
  <p>"You've made the right choice," Maul tells him, quiet.  "I swear it to you.  Now eat."</p>
  <p>Obi laughs.  "Just that simple, huh?"</p>
  <p>"Yes," Maul says.  He pauses, silver teeth flashing as he takes a bite of his food.  Then, casually, as though he's not declaring his undying devotion, "You know me.  I know you.  You are mine, I am yours.  This is as it should be."</p>
  <p>Obi feels himself blushing, and when he looks, he finds the two boys watching them curiously.  Feral most especially.  Obi ducks his head, takes a breath, and reaches for Maul's thigh.  It's not so much a surprise that he grabs hold of metal—the cybernetics are as much a part of Maul as his horns and fangs and flesh and blood.  Obi has already touched his durasteel legs many times, has held onto them while they had sex and felt the gyros whir and click under his hands.</p>
  <p>But he's somehow surprised his touch doesn't immediately catch Maul's attention.</p>
  <p>He moves he hand to Maul's hip, hidden from the boys' view by the table, and he feels the muscle there flutter, sees Maul turn his head in his peripheral.  "I—I hope you're right," Obi says, not meeting the Zabrak's eye. </p>
  <p>He doesn't bother saying that he's frightened, because he knows Maul can feel it in him.</p>
  <p>Maul just leans over and nuzzles at his cheek, then goes back to his dinner.</p>
  <p>Once the ship is flight ready, they leave Tatooine and set a course for Iridonia. </p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And it's finally finished!  I hope everyone enjoys, thank you so so much for the comments and kudos.  Stay safe out there guys. &lt;3</p><p>Also, I've included a few fanart pieces that people have made for this fic.  Thank you so much to <a href="https://obi-papito-wan.tumblr.com/">obi-papito-wan</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bereweillschmidt/">bereweillschmidt</a> for making such amazing contributions to this work.  You are awesome!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p>
<p></p><div>
  <p>Obi goes back to Tatooine three months later.</p>
  <p>It is not to stay, not to leave his newfound family.  Rather, he goes to speak with the Lars', because Maul refuses to tell him what happened before they left...</p>
  <p>Or more accurately, Maul lies.  He says that 'the woman,' assumedly Beru, simply gave Luke to him, and so he left with the boy and returned to Obi.  It's a story that makes no logical sense.  While Obi cannot feel any duplicity in the other man, no parent would relinquish their child to a stranger without a fight.</p>
  <p>Obi wants to believe him, and somewhere deep down, he does.  He trusts Maul. He trusts the man blindly and stupidly with everything he is and everything he has. He trusts to the point that he is beginning to forget the man's danger. He looks and no longer sees any potential for violence. Somewhere deep down, he truly believes Maul just walked in, picked up Luke, and left.</p>
  <p>He looks at himself in the mirror now and can see gold beginning to shine behind the blue of his eyes.  He can feel the chaos and passion within himself beginning to mirror Maul's.  </p>
  <p>He doesn't trust <em>himself</em>.</p>
  <p>He leaves in the middle of the night.  Maul grumps at him when he pulls out of his arms, those golden eyes cracking open to regard him sleepily, but then he just rolls over and snuggles back down under the covers.  And of course he doesn't expect anything.  Things have been good, peaceful and quiet, that sense of contentment Maul prophesized about well within their grasp.  The Zabrak probably thinks Obi is going to the 'fresher for a pee, or maybe getting a cup of water from the kitchen.</p>
  <p>The <em>Scimitar </em>is still where they initially set it down, in Wortan's docking bay.  Obi grabs a change of dirty clothes from the bin in the 'fresher, the best he can do without waking Maul, and then steals out during the night. </p>
  <p>He'll be back, he promises himself.  He'll be back.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>Owen lunges at him as soon as he makes it on their property, throwing punches and shouting.  It's second nature for Obi to put his hands out and push him to the ground, <em>Force-push</em> him, sending him skidding through the sand.  Then just hold him there so he can't get up. </p>
  <p>Obi stands there for a second just staring at what he's done, shocked at himself, the words coming from Owen's mouth not registering at first.  But then...</p>
  <p>"...your nerve!  You send your goon to abduct our child, then come back here and show your face!"</p>
  <p>"Oh, you'd be surprised where I show my face," Obi quips for lack of anything else to say.  This is exactly what he was afraid of, that Maul has been lying to him, and inside he's quietly collapsing. </p>
  <p>He can see Beru running up to them in the distance, her skirts held up out of the sands in one hand.  He sighs and lets Owen up off the ground.  Apparently the man's learned his lesson, because he doesn't try to attack Obi again.</p>
  <p>"What's happening?" Beru calls as she comes up to them, grabbing hold of her husband by the arm.  Then, to Obi, "What are you doing here?  Is Luke alright?"</p>
  <p>And that—that brings Obi up short.  No accusation, no anger, just questions.  <em>Is Luke alright?</em></p>
  <p>"Yes, he's—he's well," Obi tells her.  "He's become fast friends with..."</p>
  <p>"You bring him back here!" Owen demands. </p>
  <p>"No," Obi answers, simple.  "He's where he belongs."</p>
  <p>"So you get my stepbrother killed, and now your goal is to get my nephew killed as well?" Owen snaps.</p>
  <p>Obi sighs.  Beru squeezes her husband's arm but stays quiet.  Her silence is notable.  He thinks about what Maul had said, that the woman had given Luke to him.  He'd never mentioned anything about Owen, never even mentioned seeing the man. </p>
  <p>Owen had been the one to develop a hatred toward Obi, to blame Obi for what had happened.  Beru has never shown him any hostility, but Obi had just assumed she felt the same way.  Perhaps he'd been wrong.</p>
  <p>"Between me and my m..."  He begins to say 'mate' as easily as breathing, but trips over the word as it hits his tongue.  <em>Kriff.</em>  "Me and my partner, we'll keep Luke safe.  We won't let anything happen to him, I swear it."</p>
  <p>"You never mean to," Owen growls</p>
  <p>Though simultaneously, Beru says, "Your partner, he's the red Zabrak, right?"</p>
  <p>Obi raises his brows.  "Yes.  Yes, he is."</p>
  <p>"I'd seen him coming and going from town.  I knew he must be staying with you," she says.  "Despite appearances, he was gentle with Luke."</p>
  <p>Owen looks at her, incredulous, while Obi watches him cautiously.  He replies to Beru, "Maul—my partner—he's a good man.  He's a good father, he has a son of his..."</p>
  <p>"So there's another little boy there?  Luke's not alone?" Beru asks, perking up. </p>
  <p>"What?" Owen asks, watching his wife in bewilderment. </p>
  <p>"Everything is alright," Obi tells him, waving his hands in Owen's direction.  "Luke is where he belongs.  Beru did the right the thing."</p>
  <p>He watches in a mix a satisfaction and quiet guilt as Owen's expression goes slack and the man repeats his words, "Everything is alright.  Luke is where he belongs.  Beru did the right thing."</p>
  <p>It's not that Obi's never used a mind-trick for his own purposes before.  He's just never used it to aid himself in a crime—to aid himself in a kidnapping.</p>
  <p>"You... you know," Beru says, quiet.  She looks guilty.  "The Zabrak told you."</p>
  <p>"Yes," Obi says.  "He did."</p>
  <p>"I just," she says, nervously glancing over at Owen.  "I was beginning to see it in him.  That—that sorcery that his father was capable of.  That <em>you're</em> capable of."</p>
  <p>Obi nods.  He knows.  He's seen it in their home on Iridonia.  </p>
  <p>"He needs to be with his own people.  I love him with everything I am but... we're not enough," she says.  "He's special."</p>
  <p><em>More than you know</em>, Obi thinks.  "He is," he agrees.</p>
  <p>"I'm glad there is another child there with you," she murmurs.  "I know he was lonely here.  There are no other children nearby, no one to play with except me."</p>
  <p>"They've already become close friends," Obi tells her. </p>
  <p>She nods.  "I hope you don't think poorly of me."</p>
  <p>"You knew what was best for him, and you did it," Obi says.  "I just... needed to see you.  See it for myself."</p>
  <p>She doesn't question him about this, doesn't ask.  She seems to think he's come to let her know Luke is alright, tells him, "Thank you for coming all this way.  I think about him every day.  It's good to know he's doing well."</p>
  <p>"We've settled on Iridonia, near Wortan," Obi tells her.  "You can come and see him anytime you want.  You are his family."</p>
  <p>She smiles, watery but true, and says, "I may take you up on that."</p>
  <p>When Obi bids them farewell, it's with a new sense of peace about the situation. </p>
  <p>He should have known Maul wasn't lying.  Maul has never lied to him, not once this entire time, no matter how unpleasant the truth might be.  He's withheld the true from time to time, but he's never once looked Obi in the eye and been false.</p>
  <p>He wonders what Maul will do when he returns. </p>
  <p>He wonders if Maul is capable of forgiveness.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>They've settled into a quiet life on Iridonia. They have small cabin on the banks of a river, two bedrooms and one 'fresher, only a twenty-minute speeder run into Wortan.</p>
  <p>Dusk is turning the sky into beautiful shades of red and orange when Obi makes his way back to their home. When he opens the front door, he finds the two boys playing on the living room floor, both of their heads already up and staring at him. Maul standing in the kitchenette, busy with a pot cooking on the stove, though he also already has eyes on Obi. His fury is near palpable.</p>
  <p>"Ah, you felt me coming," Obi notes. Then, with a nervous laugh, "I guess I'll never be able to sneak up on you, eh?"</p>
  <p>Maul moves suddenly and violently, grabbing hold of the pot in a rage and flinging it at the far wall. Some sort of white sauce gets splattered up and down the wooden paneling, all over the kitchen counters. Obi flinches.</p>
  <p>"Papa!" Feral shouts, while Obi murmurs, "Maul."</p>
  <p>"Do not speak to me, Jedi," Maul snarls, pointing one finger in Obi's direction. "I would tear you limb from limb if it would not ruin me."</p>
  <p>"I—," Obi starts, then sighs, closing his eyes. "Maul, I'm sorry, I just..."</p>
  <p>Maul sweeps past him, shoving him aside as he goes. Before he exits the cabin, he snaps, "Feed them and put them to bed. I'll be back later."</p>
  <p>Obi mutters something of an affirmative, but Maul is already gone. He sighs, looking back to where the boys are both watching him with wide eyes. "Well," he says, trying to lighten the mood. The tension in the room is thick enough to cut with a knife. "What were we having for dinner?"</p>
  <p>Feral's eyes track to the wall where part of their dinner is smeared. Luke unhelpfully answers, "Meat and sauce."</p>
  <p>"Ok, well, let me get this cleaned up and..."</p>
  <p>"I'm glad you're back," Feral interrupts, quiet.</p>
  <p>"Yeah," Luke agrees. "We missed you."</p>
  <p>Obi's heart aches at that, and he smiles. "I missed you boys, too."</p>
  <p>"Papa missed you," Feral informs him.  "He's mad, but... it's because he missed you."</p>
  <p>It's a statement that makes no sense, yet at the same time, because it's Maul, makes all the sense in the galaxy.  "I missed him, too," Obi tells Feral, going into the kitchen.  He grabs a rag, preparing to clean up the mess Maul has made, before thinking to say, "Don't worry, okay?  I'll talk to your Papa when he comes back.  Everything will be fine.  Nothing bad is going to happen."</p>
  <p>When he glances back at the boys, they're both watching him dubiously.  Feral insists, "He's been really mad."</p>
  <p>"I'm sure," Obi says, started to wipe of the counters.  "Don't worry, though, okay?"</p>
  <p>Luke abruptly says, "Can I ask something?"</p>
  <p>"Well, you just did," Obi jokes, trying to stay light.  "But I suppose you can ask something else."</p>
  <p>Luke frowns at him, unimpressed, but asks, "Are you and Maul...?  You're like Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen, right?"</p>
  <p>Obi pauses in his cleaning, unsure how to respond.  He's saved from having to find the words, though, by Feral saying, "They're like a Mama and Papa.  Except they're two Papas."</p>
  <p>He says it simple as anything, like he's figured it all out and he's very sure of himself.  And he probably <em>has </em>figured it all out, has looked around himself at the few other families they've seen, what he's seen on the holo-tube and read in his stories, then compared it to Obi and Maul.  To their behavior together.</p>
  <p>Obi almost falls over.</p>
  <p>They try to be discrete, but Obi is sure the boys have seen their displays of affection at some point.  Romantic embraces, gentle kisses, Maul's little Zabrak nuzzles.  Not to mention that they've taken to sleeping together at night, the two boys set up with their own beds in their own room. </p>
  <p>He and Maul don't have sex as often as Obi would like.  Keeping up with two little boys is honestly exhausting, and most nights when they make it to the bedroom, they just want to sleep.  But when they do have sex, they are quiet quiet <em>quiet</em>, muffling their groans and grunts and sighs into each other's flesh. </p>
  <p>And Obi gets lost in thought, worrying that they haven't been quiet enough, that the boys have overheard them.  Then Luke replies to Feral, "That's what I thought.  They're like my Aunt and Uncle."</p>
  <p>Obi glances back at the two, but neither of the boys are paying him any mind.  Apparently now that the mystery of whether he and Maul are like a husband and wife—or a Mama and Papa—has been solved, Luke is more interested in playing with Feral than talking to Obi.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Luke has settled in well.  Those first couple of weeks were rough, Luke homesick and sobbing for his Aunt and Uncle.  There are still bad nights sometimes, nights when Luke can't sleep and cries silent tears and asks to go home.  Obi never knows what to say on those nights, and Maul usually just tells him he <em>is </em>home, which never seems to help.  It's usually Feral who gets him to calm down, just talking to him and being silly, quietly reminding him that he has a best friend and brother here. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>And they are brothers.  Brothers in all but blood.</p>
  <p>They are a family.  Obi's family.</p>
  <p>He feels guilty for ever doubting Maul.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>Maul stays out for a long time, well after the boys' bedtime. </p>
  <p>Obi takes care of everything, goes through the evening ritual with both of the boys before finally getting them into bed.  Dinner and bathtime and storytime.  Then the two boys start with their '<em>I'm thirsty'</em> <em>and 'I need to pee'</em> and the blatant lie of <em>'I'm not sleepy'—</em>anything to prolong the inevitable. </p>
  <p>Obi entertains them for a while, always does.  Maul says he's a pushover, but he figures there's no harm in one last sip of water and one last trip to the 'fresher before lights out. </p>
  <p>And once the boys are down, all tucked in and asleep, Obi wanders across the hall to his own bedroom.  Alone. </p>
  <p>He wonders if this is Maul's silent revenge.  Disappear for a few days himself and leave Obi waiting and wondering and worrying.  He knows the man will come back sooner rather than later—he'd never just up and leave Feral—but...</p>
  <p>It's the early hours of the morning when he feels Maul return, his presence fiery and passionate and closing in on the cabin, then on the bedroom, and then on Obi himself.  Obi sighs, trying to keep himself calm, and opens his eyes to find Maul standing at the side of the bed watching him like a predator.</p>
  <p>"You were not asleep," Maul notes, staring down at where he's stretched out on his back.</p>
  <p>"I couldn't sleep.  I was thinking about you," Obi admits.  It's a sappy thing to say, and he almost expects Maul to call him on it, but Maul just begins to methodically undress. Obi takes him in, the way his fingers look as they unlatch the clasp of his cloak, the way the fabric ripples as it slides off his shoulders and to the floor. His belt goes next, then his tunic, all that soft skin on his chest and stomach bared.</p>
  <p>"Why did you leave?" Maul asks, seemingly nonchalant, though his Force-signature is anything but.</p>
  <p>Obi replies, "I went back to Tatooine."</p>
  <p>Maul grunts, pulling open the ties on his trousers and then stepping out of them.  His underwear go next, and then he's climbing into the bed alongside Obi, slow and measured.  Obi glances between the other's legs, unsurprised to find him hardening up.  His own belly swoops hot as Maul crawls over him, his weight pushing him down into the mattress.  Maul's cock twitches against his hip, and Obi moans softly.</p>
  <p>"I missed you," Obi whispers, reaching up to cup Maul's face in his hands, but Maul jerks away from him with a quiet growl.  Obi frowns.  "Maul, please..."</p>
  <p>"Silence," Maul snarls at him, voice low, obviously trying not to wake the boys.  He grabs Obi around the middle, rocking back on his haunches and manhandling Obi around until Obi is laid out on his belly.  Obi grunts, only fighting for a moment out of instinct before he feels Maul's hands on his ass, pulling down his underwear, blunt claws scritching against his skin.  The sharp hit of arousal has him practically melting...</p>
  <p>Maul pauses behind him, Obi's underwear caught around his thighs.  His Force-presence seems to flutter, almost... surprised?  Obi reaches back for him, hand grasping blindly, and murmurs, "Maul, don't stop, please..."</p>
  <p>Maul shoves him further down in reply then finishes wrestling his underwear off.  Obi is left bare from the waist down, only his loose white sleep-shirt on, though Maul doesn't seem concerned with getting that off.  He just reaches over Obi, past Obi's shoulder and to the nightstand, pulling the drawer open and rifling through until he finds their jar of oil. </p>
  <p>Obi moans, anticipation coiling up in his belly.  It's been too long since they've had sex.  He was away for nearly a week, and they'd gone without for a while <em>before </em>he left for Tatooine.  Over a week.  <em>At least.</em></p>
  <p>He wants.  So very badly.</p>
  <p>"Look at you," Maul purrs, low and goading.  Obi hears the pop of the oil jar's stopper, then the slick sound of fingers being dipped in.  "The little Jedi reduced to begging.  So needy.  So desperate."</p>
  <p>Obi blushes, but at the same time, he nods into his pillow.  Maul chuckles meanly from behind, while Obi pulls his knees up under himself, hiking his ass up so Maul can better see, can get to him easier.</p>
  <p>Suddenly, without warning, there is a sharp spark of pain on his left buttocks.  Teeth digging in, deep punctures from fangs.  While Obi falls back to the mattress in shock, Maul pushes his fingers inside.  He's not gentle about it, but then he's never really gentle about it.  It's a familiar burn, a wanted intrusion, a torturous intimacy...</p>
  <p>"I missed you," Obi finds himself mumbling again, pulling his knees back under himself.  He likes being on his knees for this, his back arched and his chest pressed to the mattress, his ass in the air so it's <em>right there</em> for Maul.  So that Maul can see, because Maul likes to watch his fingers open Obi up, likes to watch his cock sink in...</p>
  <p>And yeah, the thought of being seen so nakedly makes Obi blush and squirm, but if there's one thing he's learning about himself, it's that what makes Maul hot usually makes him hot too.</p>
  <p>"Feels good—that feels good," Obi whispers, his eyes closed.  They're words that usually get an enthusiastic response from Maul, that make him purr and nibble and double his efforts.  Now, though?  He growls, then leans down and bites into the thin skin just above Obi's tailbone.  Obi curses at the spike of pain, not entirely unpleasant. </p>
  <p>"Silence, this isn't about you," Maul hisses at him, an obvious lie, then leans down to bite again, this time on the meaty part of Obi's flank.  He doesn't manage to break the skin through Obi's shirt, but Obi still flinches and moans.</p>
  <p>"If you're trying to punish me," Obi begins, pausing to gasp as Maul pulls his fingers out.  He takes a breath, listening to the wet sound as Maul slicks up his cock.  Then, "If you're trying to punish me, you should know this is the wrong way to do so."</p>
  <p>Maul huffs, maneuvering around behind him, cybernetic legs cool against Obi's overhot skin.  "I am not punishing you," Maul says.  "I am... <em>mating </em>with you."</p>
  <p>"Yes, I get that," Obi says, immediately aware that he's missing something by the way Maul emphasizes 'mating.'  But he's hard as nails, and Maul's slick cock is pressing against his rim, and he just <em>wants</em>.  He muffles his moan in his pillow while Maul pushes inside.  Maul bites the back of his neck, stifling his own growls and purrs with Obi's flesh. </p>
  <p>Maul fucks him hard and fast and with a desperation that Obi isn't used to.  The sex between them is always on the rougher side, but this?  Obi would think Maul were in rut if he weren't otherwise completely fine.  Violently aggressive and frenetically sexual, yes, but he's not running a fever, and he wasn't sweating before they started fucking...</p>
  <p class="">Obi can <em>feel </em>the desperation in him, though, and it's not fueled by lust, not fueled by a bodily hunger.  No, this is pure emotion, fear and despair and anguish.  The more Obi feels it in him, the more Obi wants to hold him and comfort him, but Maul has him held down on the bed, teeth digging into the back of his neck and hips working against his ass.  His chest is warm and heavy against Obi's back, and his metal legs creak quietly with each thrust, and his cock is hot and hard and feels perfect...</p>
  <p class="">And Obi loves him, <em>kriff</em>, but Obi loves him.</p>
  <p class="">Obi wiggles an arm out from underneath himself, reaches back until he finds Maul's head, cups his palm against the back of Maul's skull.  "I'm here," he murmurs, finally understanding.  <em>Truly </em>understanding.  "I'm here.  I'm home.  I'm not leaving..."</p>
  <p class="">Maul moans like a dying man in response, then jerks his hips up and in, the way Obi's come to realize is an immediate precursor to the knot.  Obi grins, massaging Maul's scalp, between and around his horns.  Sure enough, he feels that familiar stretch at his rim when Maul rocks back..</p>
  <p class="">"That was all it took, huh?" Obi asks, teasing. </p>
  <p class="">He gets bitten again for his trouble, hard and sharp and bloody, and then Maul snaps, "Be silent."</p>
  <p class="">"Mmm," Obi hums, while Maul starts grinding his hips in tiny circles.  The stretch feels good, and the anticipation feels better. </p>
  <p class="">They still haven't done this too much, haven't gone all the way all that many times.  Three months here in Iridonia, their quiet home and privacy, and they've barely made it into the double digits as far as this goes.  It's not for lack of want on Obi's part, and it's <em>definitely </em>not for lack of want on Maul's part...</p>
  <p class="">It's just a lot.  Still.  For Obi, yes, obviously, but he's beginning to realize it affects Maul, too.  He's not entirely sure how or why, but he has his suspicions.  Maul has mated with—or bred, as he calls it—many women over the years.  Tying isn't a new experience for him like it is for Obi. </p>
  <p class="">Feelings, however—these protective and possessive, adoring and worshiping sensations Obi gets from his Force presence—these are new.  New in this context, at least.   New combined with a sexual attraction and want...</p>
  <p class="">With a quiet grunt, Maul pushes in one last time and stays, knot blown, hips pressed up tight to Obi's ass.  His back bows, and his forearms dig their way under Obi's chest to hug him close.  Obi can feel Maul's climax, the knot throbbing inside him, Maul's mouth open and soundless against the nape of his neck.  It's so wonderful and satiating in its own simple way, the knowledge that Maul is finding pleasure in him, is finding satisfaction in him.</p>
  <p class="">The pressure against Obi's prostate is both delicious and agonizing, and he has to bite the pillow to keep from crying out.  His cock is so hard it aches, and he pulls his hand away from Maul's head, reaches underneath himself instead.  He barely has to touch himself before he comes, spending himself wet against their dark bedsheets.</p>
  <p>They lie together on their sides afterwards, Maul licking at the bite wounds he's left, soft and slow and almost reverent.  Obi wipes his hands off on his shirt then reaches back again to touch Maul, to massage his scalp and the base of his horns.  Maul purrs at him in reply, affectionate and sweet, drunk on love hormone, all the aggressive desperation drained out from him.</p>
  <p class="">"I was never leaving," Obi tells him, quiet and sleepy.  He doesn't bother opening his eyes.  He's too comfortable, warm in Maul's arms, still relaxed enough that the tie doesn't feel uncomfortable.  It just feels... easy and intimate.</p>
  <p class="">Maul is silent at first.  His hip cringe up slightly, and his cock give one noticeable spasm.  It's times like these that Obi wonders what Maul is experiencing while they're tied.  It makes him wonder if the man is still orgasming, or perhaps feeling something similar.  Maul is always lucid, can hold a conversation, doesn't gasp or grunt as though in the throes but...</p>
  <p class="">Obi will ask one day.  But not right now.</p>
  <p class="">"I tried to contact you," Maul murmurs, so quietly that Obi doubts he would be able to hear if Maul's lips weren't against the back of his neck.  "I saw that you'd taken the Scimitar, and I reached out.  The comms system was offline."</p>
  <p class="">"I know," Obi says.  He hadn't connected the communications unit.  He'd known Maul would try to find him, and he hadn't wanted to be found. </p>
  <p class="">"I thought you had gone," Maul admits, quiet.  His arm tightens around Obi's middle.  "I thought you had changed your mind."</p>
  <p class="">"No.  No, Maul, no..."  Obi takes a breath, lets it out slow.  "I went to see Luke's family.  His aunt and uncle.  To tell them that the boy is well."</p>
  <p class="">It's not quite a lie, but it's obviously not the whole truth either.  If Maul can feel it on him, the half-lie, he doesn't call him out.  He just says, "You should have spoken to me.  Told me of your plan."</p>
  <p class="">"I know," Obi says.  "I know, and I'm sorry.  I truly am.  I never meant to cause you pain."</p>
  <p class="">Maul purrs, then murmurs, "The pain has made me strong."</p>
  <p class="">It's something he's said before, numerous times.  It sounds almost rehearsed, as though it is something he tells himself to cope, some way to put meaning to the chaos.  Obi covers Maul's hand with his own, says, "You have endured enough."</p>
  <p class="">Maul sighs, then begins licking the back of Obi's neck again.  Obi smiles, reaching back again to massage Maul's scalp<em>.</em></p>
  <p class="">"Anyway," Obi says, quiet.  "If I were truly going to leave, I would have the decency to speak to you about it first.  I would not just take Luke and steal off in the middle of the night without so much as an explanation."</p>
  <p class="">"Except that is exactly what you did," Maul argues, careful to keep his voice down.  "You did not take Luke, but you still left without so much as a word..."</p>
  <p class="">"I—I didn't want to face your anger over my actions," Obi admits.</p>
  <p class="">"And you thought I would not be angry <em>after</em>?" Maul growls.</p>
  <p class="">"I clearly did not think it through."</p>
  <p class="">Maul grunts.  "An act of impulse is an act of passion..."</p>
  <p class="">"It wasn't an act of passion, it was just..." Obi doesn't know.</p>
  <p class="">"And through passion, you will gain power."</p>
  <p class="">Obi sighs.  "I just wanted what was best for Luke."</p>
  <p class="">"And you thought I would not understand that?"  Maul's sharp canines drag along Obi's neck.  Obi shivers.  "If anyone understands that, it is I.  As much loyalty and passion as I hold in my hearts for you, if it came to a choice between you and Feral?  Or even you and Luke?  I would cut you down in a moment."</p>
  <p class="">It probably should be a disturbing sentiment, but in truth, it's anything but.  It's actually comforting.  "After you left this evening," Obi begins.  "Luke asked if we were like his Aunt and Uncle.   Feral informed him we were two Papas."</p>
  <p class="">Maul doesn't chuckle as Obi was expecting—he'd been hoping to lighten the mood, move past their disagreement.  Instead, after a long pause, Maul illogically says, "I choose you."</p>
  <p class="">"What?" Obi asks, confused by the sudden change in conversation.</p>
  <p class="">"I choose you," Maul says, quiet but clear.  "You are my friend and my partner and my lover.  Our fates are connected through the Force.  I <em>choose </em>you."</p>
  <p class="">"You're choosing me as your Mate," Obi realizes, chest clenching in both love and heartache.  Maul purrs softly in reply, unbearably affectionate, and Obi says, "Maul, I've been committed—or, I mean, I <em>chose </em>you the moment I decided to leave Tatooine.  The first time I left, back when we <em>all </em>left.  I've already made my choice."</p>
  <p class="">Maul purrs, soft and loving.  Obi keeps rubbing at Maul's skull, massaging the base of his horns.  He can feel Maul's knot beginning to subside.  The room is calm and quiet, even though Maul's presence in the room is wild and fiery. </p>
  <p class="">Love.  Obi can feel his love.  It's intense and violent and absolute.  It could smother Obi.  It could consume him.  Obi would gladly let it.</p>
  <p class="">"You are mine, and I am yours," Maul says, quiet, before carefully pulling out.  There's a small tug as what is left of the knot slides free, but then Obi is able to get up, stretch and waddle his way to the 'fresher.</p>
  <p class="">He leans over to kiss Maul before he goes.  One chaste press of his lips against Maul's, and then one lick from Maul as they part.  The customary kiss for them now, a meeting in the middle as it were.</p>
  <p class="">"You still blush so easy," Maul comments.  "I'd had you many times now.  I know how you feel and how you taste.  I'm not sure why you still feel discomfit."</p>
  <p class="">"Perhaps one day I won't," Obi allows.  "As for now, you still burn me up."</p>
  <p class="">Maul doesn't reply, only purrs quietly as Obi leaves for the 'fresher.</p>
  <p class="">~*~</p>
  <p class="">The years pass as they do—both slowly with the worry and uncertainty of the future hanging over their heads, and insanely fast, too fast, the boys growing up before Obi is ready for it.  And definitely before Maul is ready for it.</p>
  <p class="">Sometimes it feels like he just blinks, goes to sleep and wakes up the next day, and the boys are another year older, taller and more mature.  Stronger in the Force.  More independent, autonomous, though still young enough to cling to 'Papa Maul' and 'Papa Obi' for safety and assurance.</p>
  <p class="">Maul goes from saying 'my boy' and 'my child' to 'my boys' and 'my children.'  It does something to Obi, twists him up inside, makes him love deeper, stronger, wilder.</p>
  <p class="">They talk about leaving Iridonia often, only more frequently as the years pass.  They linger and linger, but there continues to be no sight or sound of any Nightsisters.  The Iridonian Zabrak are kind and welcoming when they venture into town for supplies, and the boys have settled into their home, are happy.  There is room and privacy outside the cabin to practice sparring—they've not let either of the boys handle real sabers yet, but they've purchased wooden training blades from in town, a standard one for Luke and a long stave for Feral.</p>
  <p class="">"I will give him my dual saber," Maul says, in explanation for Feral's long training blade.  "He will accompany Luke when the time comes."</p>
  <p class="">He says it as though it is without question, matter-of-fact, the way he says things when he has foreseen it to be true.  And not only foreseen it, but believes it is the path that will unfold before them.  Obi has learned a lot about Maul's visions in their years together, has <em>seen </em>Maul have them.  They usually occur at night while he is sleeping, but he often speaks and moves during them, sometimes even rises from the bed, which always wakes Obi. </p>
  <p class="">Maul's eyes are always open, golden and luminous but unseeing.  Or rather, seeing something that Obi cannot.  It was unsettling the first few times Obi witnessed it, though he's become accustomed to it now, knows that Maul isn't in any danger.  He always comes back to Obi eventually, maybe five minutes or maybe thirty, then lies back down in the bed.</p>
  <p class="">He doesn't always tell Obi what he sees.  Sometimes he skirts the subject, nips at Obi and tells him to <em>hush, go back to sleep</em>—or, the most effective way of getting Obi to drop the subject, he slinks down between Obi's legs and makes Obi come.  But at times, he does speak to Obi about the things he's seen, not all of which is bad...</p>
  <p class="">He murmurs to Obi one night, curled close under the covers, that he saw them holding their grandchild.  A Zabrak baby girl, newly born.  And he hopes, prays that this is the path they are on, because with what he knows is to come... they could all very well perish.</p>
  <p class="">He, Obi, Luke, Feral... they could all very well be dead before there is ever a grand-baby to hold.</p>
  <p class="">That night is a difficult one.  Maul's fear and sorrow and anger are so strong Obi could choke on them, and though he tries to comfort Maul with assurances and words of affection, it doesn't do much.  So Obi eventually just climbs up on him, straddles him, and sits on his dick.  That rush of happy endorphins from knotting and tying always leaves Maul relaxed and sleepy, and this time is no different...</p>
  <p class="">He goes into rut the next week.  Obi figures he should have realized.  He learns <em>a lot</em> over the years—not just about Maul's visions but about his ruts, too.  Maul's hormone cycle is erratic at its best and horrific at its worst.  His 'six month sickness' tends to be every three months, or six months, or nine months, or whenever the fuck his body feels like getting around to it.  And his behavior ranges from the ridiculously violent to the sublimely affectionate.  Obi might as well toss a credit coin to see what sort of creature he's going to get each time.</p>
  <p class="">But one thing always remains the same—he becomes a hormonal wreck the week before, swinging wildly from one extreme to the other.  As passionately emotional as he usually is, Obi sometimes doesn't even notice it until Maul actually hits his rut, but then he inevitably looks back and realizes, <em>Oh, that's why you've been fucking insufferable...</em></p>
  <p class="">Then the boys hit puberty, and Feral starts having ruts too.  They purchase him a rut-toy, as Maul calls it, and reposition Luke to the couch during the nights so Feral can have his privacy.  Feral gets ashamedly embarrassed about it all, the blush visible through his peachy untattooed skin when Maul gives him the toy and tells him to lock the bedroom door.  Then, Maul fusses over his embarrassment, telling him <em>this is normal and natural</em> and <em>this means you are hale and healthy</em> and <em>you realize you were conceived while I was in rut?</em></p>
  <p class="">The last bit sends Feral scurrying into his bedroom with the toy just to escape the conversation, Luke giggling and blushing all the while from his place on the couch.</p>
  <p class="">Maul proceeds to turn and blame Obi for his son's behavior, for 'acting like a human about sex.'</p>
  <p class="">"You realize I'm a human," Obi reminds him.</p>
  <p class="">Maul scoffs at him and snaps, "You are as much a Nightbrother as I."</p>
  <p>And well, the problem is, Obi cannot really refute that.  He's changed since he left Tatooine.  He's changed a lot.  His Force presence is nothing like it used to be, nothing like a Jedi's should be.  He mirrors Maul's signature now, hot fiery and alight with pain and anger over the past, with worry and fear over the future, with passion and love for his family.</p>
  <p>His eyes are a bright gold, near as vivid as Maul's.</p>
  <p>He now knows how to not only wield the Dark Side, but how to practice the magics that Maul knows.  He knows many Dathomiri incantations, knows the power in blood spilt, knows the power behind death.  Maul has taught him many things, and it turned out Maul was right...</p>
  <p>He's become very interested in learning those Dark ways.</p>
  <p>He's stronger now than he ever was as a Jedi.  Not because the Dark Side is stronger, but because he knows more.  He knows what the Jedi taught him, and he knows what Maul has taught him.  If there is one important thing he has learned over the years with Maul, it is this...</p>
  <p>Peace is not what brings power, nor is it passion.  One must be <em>taught </em>how to manipulate the Force.  All peace and all passion is useless without knowledge. </p>
  <p>It's that knowledge that gives him the upper hand against Vader. </p>
  <p>It's that knowledge that keeps Maul from being felled, and allows Luke and Feral and the others to escape from the Death Star.</p>
  <p>It is that knowledge that keeps him alive in the end.</p>
  <p>~*~</p>
  <p>Maul's vision comes true.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Sixty-three years old, and Obi sits beside Maul while the Zabrak cradles his granddaughter to his chest.</p>
  <p>She's tiny, barely a week old, and somehow looks even smaller in Maul's strong arms.  She's been named 'Hasa,' a traditional Iridonian name, and she has Feral's soft peach-colored skin and the racoon markings around her eyes.  She also has small ridges on her skull, little bony bumps where her horns will break through in a few years—a gift from her mother, a young Iridonian woman Feral fell for after the war.</p>
  <p>"She's beautiful," Obi says.  He's seen her before, of course, saw her the day she was born, but she's still something surreal.  Perfect.  He reaches over to touch her little chubby cheek, and she coos at him, soft and happy.</p>
  <p>"I certainly think so," her mother Kasri says.  She looks overjoyed but very <em>very </em>tired—he supposes that's to be expected, new mother and all.  She adds with a grin, "But I'm biased."</p>
  <p>"My boy's been helping you, right?" Maul asks, glancing first at Kasri then turning a glare on Feral.  He addresses his son, "You best not be leaving her to do all the work, boy."</p>
  <p>"Pa..." Feral moans, sounding like a teenager again.</p>
  <p>"No, no, he's been great," Kasri assures.  "He's changed more diapers than me, I think."</p>
  <p>"Good," Maul declares, gently rocking Hasa in his arms, golden eyes staring down at her in clear adoration. </p>
  <p>Kasri shares an amused look with Obi, and Obi smirks back at her.  A nonverbal conversation.  <em>Yes, I know he's obnoxious.  Can't live with him, can't live without him...</em></p>
  <p>"I can feel her in the Force," Maul murmurs.  "She's strong."<em><br/>
</em></p>
  <p>Obi nods.  He can feel her as well, a pure and innocent signature in the Force.  Some part of him, some lingering Jedi part of him, feels he shouldn't be near her.  Certainly shouldn't hold her.  But he knows his mere presence won't corrupt her.</p>
  <p>They'd manage to train Luke without ever introducing him to the Dark.  When he comes home to visit, his eyes are still that soft aqua-blue, and his presence in the Force is a bright white Light. </p>
  <p>"I actually wanted to speak to you about that," Kasri says.  Feral nods, backing up his Mate.  "Feral has said she's Force-sensitive.  You both know that I am not—I know nothing about any of that.  But Feral says he was able to use his power when he was just a child, and..."</p>
  <p>"You don't have anything to worry about that," Obi interrupts her.  He gestures to Feral, "He will be able to teach her whatever she wishes to know."</p>
  <p>Feral seems taken aback.  Kasri glances back at him, but then looks to Obi again and says, "We were actually hoping that, if she begins to use her magic, that you both would teach her."</p>
  <p>Obi raises his brows.  Maul stops rocking the baby, seemingly forgetting to do so in his surprise, though Hasa quickly reminds him by fussing and grumping at him.  He goes back to rocking her, so soft and gentle compared to his usual mannerisms, and says, "I would be honored<em>—we </em>would be honored—but Feral has all of my trust.  He knows all that I know."</p>
  <p>"And I appreciate that trust," Feral says.  "But if she is going to learn, I want her to learn from the Masters, not the Apprentice."</p>
  <p>"You both taught Luke Skywalker alongside my Mate.  I can think of no better teachers for our daughter," Kasri says.  Then, as an aside to Feral, "No offense, my love."</p>
  <p>"None taken," Feral says, leaning over to nuzzle at her cheek.  She smiles up at him, reaching up to tug on one of his horns.</p>
  <p>"Do you want to hold her?" Maul asks, offering to give Hasa to Obi.  Obi smiles, nodding, and carefully takes the baby from Maul.  She coos at him as he settles her against his chest, eyes already drooping in sleep.  Obi's heart swells with love.</p>
  <p>He thinks of what Maul said to him so many years ago.  About what he said he saw in his vision.</p>
  <p>
    <em>We were safe.  We were together with our children. It was calm and easy. The pain was so dull...</em>
  </p>
  <p>"You were right," Obi says later that evening, after they've eaten supper with Feral and Kasri then wandered their way back home. </p>
  <p>"I'm sure," Maul grunts at him, pulling his shawl off and then following that up with his tunic.  He doesn't bother looking back at Obi as he goes into the 'fresher.  "But remind me again what I was right about."</p>
  <p>Obi follows him into the 'fresher, stands behind Maul at the sink as the man begins his nightly routine.  Their faces in the bathroom mirror have changed.  They've grown old, creases lining their foreheads, frown lines and crow's feet etched into their expressions.  Obi's hair and beard has gone grey, and Maul's horns have turned a dry weathered shade of brown.  They've both slowed down, Obi shuffling here and there while Maul uses a sculpted piece of wood as a cane—the cybernetic limbs have wreaked havoc on his hip joints over the years.</p>
  <p>But underneath it all, Obi looks and still sees the man he left Tatooine with over two decades ago. </p>
  <p>He lays a hand on the bare skin of Maul's back, smiling at the involuntary shiver than runs up the Zabrak's spine, and says, "Your premonition was right."</p>
  <p>Maul pauses, he hand freezing where it's reached out for his toothbrush.  "I'd hoped," he murmurs, an odd tone to his voice.  "I spent so many years hoping that one day... one day that vision would become reality.  That I would one day sit and hold my grandchild in my arms."</p>
  <p>Obi sighs, heart clenching up in his chest, and says, "That, yes... but I meant the one you told me a long time ago.  A very long time ago.  About everything being calm and easy.  About our children being with us, and the pain being dull."</p>
  <p>Maul turns slowly, and those golden eyes scan his face.  "Luke is not here," he points out.</p>
  <p>"Mmm, he comes home often enough," Obi says, reaching out to lay his hands on Maul's shoulders.  "He has his own life, his own purpose and goals.  I believe that means we raised him well."</p>
  <p>Maul's lips quirk into a grin.  "I suppose," he allows.</p>
  <p>Obi leans in to kiss those grinning lips, and then lets his hands slide down from Maul's shoulders, trailing down his chest.  Mauls purrs at him in that low timbre, sensual and sexual.</p>
  <p>"It's been a while," Maul mumbles against his lips. </p>
  <p>Obi grins, nips at Maul's bottom lip, then asks, "You feel up for it, old man?"</p>
  <p>"I don't know who you are calling 'old man,'" Maul says, reaching around to grab Obi's ass and pull him up close.  He grinds his hips against Obi's, growling quietly.  He's not hard yet, and neither is Obi, but the action itself is erotic, sparks heat in Obi's gut.</p>
  <p>Obi grins, leaning in to kiss Maul one last time before pulling away, quick and teasing.  Maul grumps at him, frowning, but Obi tells him, "I'll be waiting in the bed, whenever you're ready."</p>
  <p>Maul shoots him a silver toothy grin and tells him, "You'd best not start without me."</p>
  <p>Obi laughs.  "I wouldn't dare, my love.  I wouldn't dare."</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>
    
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  </p>
  <p>by <a href="https://obi-papito-wan.tumblr.com">obi-papito-wan</a></p>
  <p>~*~</p>
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  </p>
  <p>by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bereweillschmidt/">bereweillschmidt</a></p>
  <p> </p>
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